Young Justice: Apocalypse
by Anisa A. Karim
Summary: Seble didn't think that things could go so wrong in just one day. But if working at Wayne Tech had taught her anything, it was to always expect the unexpected. But seriously, wasn't getting fired from her job enough that she just had to see an alien selling Wayne Tech secrets too! So what else could go wrong today? Set after season 2 as a continuation, full summary inside.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

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**NEW YORK CITY**

**JULY 25, 18:00 EST**

_"And now a word from our sponsors..."_

_Leaning back in his chair, G. Gordon Godfrey smiled broadly after surviving yet another successful broadcast. As make-up artists and their assistants retouched his make-up and hair Godfrey allowed his mind to wander for the few minutes before they were live again. He could never understand how such a weak species could proliferate to such an extent or even continue surviving, despite the inherent weakness evident in their very genetic make up. Humans, so gullible, so easy to manipulate, their minds so pliable to his word and so plentiful, were by far the easiest species out of the many he had been assigned to. Even now they scurried about, tens of them, underneath the glare of the reflected fluorescent light, trying to make the set exactly to his liking for fear of his retribution. His smile grew impossibly larger. Here he was, spreading the work of his Lord and Master, paving the way for His coming, and not even the justice league doubted him! And even if they did, what could they do? They had _nothing. _To the world, he was only one of the many naysayers, and by these pitiful humans own laws, they had no right to stop him from talking._

_And that was all that he needed to do._

_As idiotic as he thought them to be, at least these apes were useful. Straightening his tie and scowling at the intern who was yet again 10 minutes late with his coffee, he made his way back unto the set. Scowl replaced by a wide smile, the camera man started the count-down until live, he turned towards his guest, nodding his head once in acknowledgement, then 3,2,1 and..._

_"Ladies and gentlemen of the world, I welcome you to The Godfrey Show here at GBS. I am your beloved host, Gordon Godfrey, and today's show will be featuring the _most _awaited interview of the decade, no, the century! Here today we have the esteemed Alexander Luthor, better known as Lex by his close friends," He smiled, looking towards his guest. "Of which I am proud to be considered one of."_

_"Please Godfrey, It is I who is proud to be in the presence of a charismatic persona such as yourself," purred Lex Luthor, posture relaxed as he folded his hands over his crossed legs, one hand subconsciously smoothing down a crease on his slate-grey Cavalli suit._ His hooded green eyes casually looked towards his host, a small smile on his face as if humoring him.

_Godfrey chuckled, stupid human, like he hadn't caught the obvious insult he intended. "Coming up we have the 6o'clock news, followed by an in-depth discussion between two of the foremost authorities on extra-stellar travel and extra-terrestrial biology, Dr. Christina Portiere of S.T.A.R labs and Dr. Rajesh Gupta of the new I.D.E.A technologies, about the alarming rise in alien life forms sighted on Earth, and what we should-be-doing-about-it!" He stressed every symbol by pounding his fist on the coffee table between himself and Lex, hair flying in disarray as he shook with anger. _

_Making a show of calming himself down, as if the thought of illegal aliens made him physically sick, Godfrey smoothed down his blond hair and once again straightened his tie. Adequately pacified, his blinding smile returned as he addressed his public, throwing his hands wide open. "And lastly, we will have my very own interview with the new esteemed secretary general Lex Luthor, discussing his stance on this alien threat and the hero-worship virus that threatens to consume our great country and the fragile minds of our children!" Godfrey leaned forward as the camera closed-up on his face. "And don't you be fooled America, you can't afford to miss this. Old Gordon Godfrey has been shouting for America to _wake up _for these past few years and now that you finally have, don't you dare fall asleep again, unless you want you're new _neighbor to be_ from more than just a few countries over." He sneered, moving backwards and leaning on his chair again._

_"So stay tuned America and I'll be back after the news."_

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**Glossary (of sorts)**

**S.T.A.R LABS- **The Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Labs are a group of fictional laboratories situated in the DC universe that seems to conduct work in every field possible. In the Young Justice world, they are most noted for their work on alien lifeforms and meta-humans. Trusted by many members of the justice league and is the prime go-to place for when a league member is grievously injured.

**I.D.E.A TECHNOLOGIES-** Institutes for the Development of Extraterrestrial Advancements. This is my own completely made up research facility, mainly because I couldn't find any other ones to rival S.T.A.R labs, well, except Wayne tech. I'm a little (shamelessly) proud of the acronym, though it tool me a while to think it up.

You can think of it as an up and coming research facility which rivals S.T.A.R labs when it comes to extraterrestrial studies. Due to its massive rise in the scientific community in the short 5 years of its creation, some people doubt the legitimacy of its background, and think there may be another power behind it.


	2. Beginnings

**Young Justice: Apocalypse**

_The prologue isn't really the first chapter so I thought I'll introduce the story here! This is an imaginative season 3 of Young Justice, mostly using my OC, Seble Howard, as the main perspective but also others from the YJ universe when needed. If sections are in italics it usually indicates an excerpt from an event before the present. it'll be dated to, hopefully, avoid confusion (fingers crossed!). I know, this has all been done before, and the chapters are super long, so why do it again? Well, although probably not by much, it does differ a bit from the other stories on the site and I wanted to see my vision unfold on paper. Egotistical? Maybe but unlikely, I have very little faith in my writing abilities! Took all my will power to put this up here! I also wanted to share what was in my head with other people and generally vent my frustration over the cancellation of a once fantastic show._

_So without further ado here's 11 pages of writing, ouch! Please enjoy :-)_

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_Seble Howard (first name pronounc__ed __s-eh-b-uh-l) professes to be your typical hard working girl living in Gotham City and as far as she knows, her life, though not easy, was pretty straightforward: wake up, feed the kids, work, pick up and feed kids, work then sleep. However, after she's fired from her job at Wayne Enterprises and somehow ends up witnessing a terrible secret there, she leaves with more questions than anyone can possibly answer. Fearing for her and her brother's life, she tries to run but ends up entangling herself further into a web of lies, mystery and hidden agendas from both sides of a game that she now is fully involved in._

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**Chapter 1: Beginnings**

**GOTHAM CITY, THE BOWERY**

**SEPTEMBER 03, 06:00 EST**

Lying face down on her bed, arm dangling off the side and legs tangled every which way in her covers, Seble Howard was the picture of peace. Even with the sun shining through a crack in her yellow drapes directly on her face she continued sleeping. It wasn't until her alarm blared at max volume that she finally woke up.

Seble wasn't by far what anyone called a 'morning person,' she hated the morning no matter what day of the week it was in. But every day at exactly 6am she'd wake up, groaning, barely managing to drag herself from the warm cocoon of her bed to the chilly air of her room, shambling along like the living dead trying to wake up enough to get ready for work. She stretched hard, hearing her joints pop, up until she felt a cramp threatening her left calf. Rubbing her left leg she hopped towards the bathroom, bypassing a stack of books which teetered on the brink of falling. Her room was full of them, on her desk, overflowing her bookcase, on the floor and on the window sill. Reading was her preferred hobby and also the main way she kept herself up to date in the advancements of biotechnology and electrical engineering, her kind of stuff.

Stepping into the bathroom, she rubbed tired, sleep encrusted eyes and gave her cheeks a few small slaps to help her wake up. Getting up seriously shouldn't be so hard, but for a girl of 17 shouldering the responsibilities of her two younger brothers, this was something she had gotten used to over the past 2 years.

After showering, brushing her teeth and finishing off all other toilet business, she left the bathroom in search of something presentable to wear for work. Despite being a teen working as an adult, her dress sense hadn't needed to change too much. She'd always been kinda mature (plain) for her age, preferring simple monochrome tee's in dull colors and dark blue jeans to pastels, prints or brights. Of course she'd wear a blazer and a pair of low heeled black boots but that was only because she happened to work in the applied sciences division of Wayne Tech, and Seble was pretty darn sure they wouldn't let anyone without a blazer in for work. At least that's what she thought, since everyone she worked with seemed to wear one, in every color possible.

Chuckling to herself as she pulled her shirt down over her black and white curls she recalled the image of Francis (her supervisor) who once came in in a bright pink blazer (rotund belly sticking out of a tight white tee!). That was an image that was forever seared into her mind. She rearranged her amulet, the last gift from her father, so that it was lying comfortably on top of her shirt around her neck then left her room and walked down the hallway. She noticed that both her brother's Kevin and Malik's room were ajar, hopefully meaning that they were both already awake. Peeking in, she saw that yes, Malik (the older boy of 10 years of age) was awake but Kevin lay in a pool of his own drool snoring peacefully, arms and legs thrown every which way. Seble sighed, rolling her eyes, and made her way towards him, side-stepping mounds of dirty laundry and... was that the pizza they had three days ago?! Grimacing, she grabbed Kevin's shoulder and shook him gently.

"Kevin? Wake up, please?" She whispered. Of course it took more than a few times before he finally cracked open his sleep weary brown eyes, turning them towards his big sister in anger as he tore himself from her grasp. Sebel stumbled back, surprised as always, despite Kevin acting this way pretty much every morning. As he struggled to stand up, Seble shook her head and went about picking up his clothes from the floor. Kevin rubbed the back of his head, subconsciously smoothing down errant curls escaping his gel spiked hair. Looking up to make sure he was definitely getting up and not just flopping back on his bed, Seble realized that he mustn't have showered last night, which was another task to add to the many that he had ignored.

Kevin yawned, finally standing up and stretching. At 4'2" he was an average size for most children his age but his vertically spiked hair helped add a few more inches. Seble was often told that her youngest brother looked most like her, with his doe shaped brown eyes lined with a generous amount of dark lashes, his black curls that he meticulously styled to spikes and his lithe brown frame that never seemed to gain an ounce of fat no matter how much he ate. Unfortunately he also seemed to inherit her morning laziness (which she had inherited from her father) and getting him to wake up in the morning was always a nightmare.

As he walked past her, he quickly jabbed her in the side, causing her to yelp and drop the t-shirt she was picking up. "Ha! that's what you get sis! I told ya yesterday I don't wanna go to school anymore! " Kevin practically roared, which was the usual way for him to speak. "So you and Malik can chill the hell out and stop pressurizing me about it. It's not fair that I'm the only one in this family that ain't making any money" Kevin quipped like it was the most obvious thing for an 9 year old to say. He started to move towards the bathroom. Shaking her head once again, Seble watched him go. As if he wouldn't go to school, she wasn't working so freaking hard just so that he could drop out at 9 years old!

"It's pressuring, Kevin..."

"Whatever, get out of my room you grammar-nazi."

"… I'm just saying, you are not leaving school anytime soon honey. Besides, you're even stupider than I thought!"

Laughing as Kevin threw insults (and dirty socks) from the bathroom she moved out of his room. Finally at the kitchen, Seble started working on breakfast. The kitchen itself was small, with a stove, a small fridge and freezer, a sink and microwave taking up most of the space, and a small table with three chairs occupying what little room was left. She quickly whipped up a stack of pancakes, a couple of eggs, beacon, toast, orange juice and milk, all for the two growing boys. Seble herself could make do with just a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee, which may also be the reason for her dichromatic hair. Her black curls had, through the years, become infested with white streaks, and now although mostly black, the white was taking up a significant percentage.

Frowning as she twirled a lock of hair around her finger, she didn't realize when the time had already reached 7:30. Sputtering and almost chocking on her coffee, she yelled for the two boys to come down to the kitchen. Hurried footsteps resounded from the hallway and soon enough Malik's clean shaven head popped through the kitchen doorway, closely followed by Kevin. Mumbling a good morning, they seated themselves and unceremoniously began eating their breakfast. Seble watched them eat with a smile on her face. Despite how annoying they could be, these were one of the few moments where she enjoyed watching her little brothers and could relax. That is until 8am when she'd have to start hurrying them out the house.

Being an African American family living in the Bowery of Gotham theirs wasn't the safest of neighborhoods. Scratch that, murders basically happened right outside their door, and it didn't help that they lived just a few blocks down from the infamous crime alley. But what to do? The rent was cheap and the house spacious, and she really couldn't afford any better. Though this did mean that the kids couldn't really travel around the area unescorted, so Seble always made sure to go with them no matter where they were going, whether it was dropping them off at school or at a friends house, hence why she left for work so early even though she was only needed there by 10am.

Already 8o'clock, and thankfully Malik was just finishing off his orange juice. Stretching his long browned limbs, he turned towards his elder sister with a satisfied smile on his face. Malik was a good kid, and out of the two also the most level headed. Despite his weird taste in hair styles (this time going for the Vin Diesel look, and at such a young age) he sensibly tried to make life easier for his sister, whether by cleaning up the house on weekends or by helping Kevin with his homework. He cleared away his dishes then gently smacked his brother on the head when he caught him playing with his food.

"Arggh! What the hell Malik!" Screamed Kevin, rubbing the spot where he was hit. "Don't touch me, what the hell... Seble say something!" He made to hit Malik, but he casually stepped aside, smirking as his brother flailed around, trying to get out of his seat.

"Shhh, it's your fault, it's already 8 and we need to get going to school now or we will all be late. Why are you playing around for idiot? Sis, you should get your coat and shoes, I'll pack our lunches," Malik says. She starts getting ready to the sounds of their fighting, not being able to help the smile that spreads across her face. Once they were all ready (with Kevin grumbling the entire time) they set out.

The Bowery wasn't called the worst neighborhood in Gotham for nothing. The streets were lively but for what seemed like all the wrong reason. Prostitutes lurked at practically every street corner in broad daylight, and groups of thugs conversed openly in doorways. The streets were cluttered with garbage and graffiti defaced every possible surface. The housing was dominated by high rise block flats and whilst Seble's apartment could be said to be housed in one of the cleaner ones, the scale of cleanliness only did go from'_filthy and should be inhospitable for human life_' to '_almost decent_.' She sidestepped a huge, tattooed man with an equally large barking dog and urged her brothers to walk faster. The sky seemed to be permanently overcast here making everything look grey and depressing and Seble made sure never to linger outside.

The kids' school was in Midtown, so not completely out of her way to work, and in a better part of Gotham. Affiliated to the prestigious Gotham Academy, Whitworth Elementary was one of the hardest schools to get in to. Most of Sable's annual income went into paying the fees (as being an elementary school they didn't offer a substantial scholarship) but thankfully Malik would graduate this year and start middle school, although then will be the headache of finding a good middle school for him to attend. After dropping them off, Seble needed only to hop on to the high speed express train that would take her all the way to Wayne Technological labs, arriving at 9:30am. Hopping on the sleek metallic train, Seble made her way to sit down at her usual seat by the window, close to the exit.

She had been working at Wayne Tech as an assistant to one of the chief scientist In the biotech division, and despite working for them loyally for the past 2 years, Seble had recently been finding herself very suspicious of the going on's at Wayne Tech. Staring out of the window as the morning sun started to rise higher in the sky, watching the bustling city go by beneath her, she couldn't help thinking of all the strange things that had been happening at Wayne Enterprises lately. Especially Wayne Tech, the branch that she worked at, had recently been getting more and more curious...

When she first started, after managing to trick herself through the extensive hiring process with the help of some close family friends who worked there and some mediocre hacking skills, she felt that Wayne Tech embodied everything that she believed in; a high environmental and ethical standard as well as the keen interest for innovative technologies and promoting pro-activity and the undertaking of new ventures in the workforce. Frowning, Seble didn't really know when all this changed, but certainly in the past year things had been getting more and more strange. It started with her supervisor, Francis, giving her the task to analyze and report her findings on a particular alien artifact that had arrived at the lab a day prior, on her own.

Now, this wasn't something new. Sometimes the man she assisted, a Dr. Clive Whittaker, would be too busy with a previous project to start a new one, so naturally one of his assistants would be chosen to run some preliminary tests and analysis before returning the reigns to him. Not liking to brag, Seble never made a fuss over her own talents. If she had publicized it some people would call her a prodigy, with an IQ of 160 and an almost insatiable hunger for knowledge it would be easy to see why. Francis favored her over the other assistants and would give her more projects than the others to do on her own, which she always made sure to complete as thoroughly and efficiently as her clearance level would allow. But this time Francis told her to keep her findings on a separate external drive and to report her findings directly to him. Needless to say, this piqued her curiosity enough for her to investigate further, winning over her guilt and fear of being caught doing something so obviously illegal. Hacking into the Wayne Enterprises system was harder than she had anticipated, but since she had (thankfully) helped with the programming for a security update for the extra pay a few weeks earlier, she managed to gain access into the main servers within half an hour.

It took her hours to find what she was looking for, and even then hours more to beat the encryption on the files. She remembered the frustration and worry setting in as it started to take a little too long to gain access and fearing she'd be discovered, she was about to give up and shut the system down. Hacking wasn't her strongest skill, and her crippling guilt wasn't helping any, but she had to find out the truth as ignorance wouldn't excuse her if she really was helping Francis do something wrong. Then, literally a second later, she finally cracked it, but what she found eliminated any feeling of satisfaction that she may have had for having beat the encryption in seconds...

The train stopped at Wayne Tech, jolting her out of her thoughts, and Seble lurched to her feet, her face set still in a frown as she hurried her way out and fobbed her way through the turnstiles. Luckily the train station led almost directly to her work place so she didn't waste any time reaching there. The Wayne Tech building was a behemoth of a structure and in that way unmissable to even the most clueless of tourists. With 16 widely interspaced levels also housing Wayne Tech's subsidiaries: Wayne Biotech and Wayne Foods. The entire thing was painted a blinding white and the Wayne Tech Logo dominated most of the front entrance. There seemed to be a constant stream of people leaving and arriving, and the revolving door looked more like a carousel to Seble than an actual door. The entire place was impeccably clean and as if just to confirm her statement, a window washer hung precariously midway down the building, cleaning the wide and tall windows which dominated the 8th floor. Seble had to push her way through the throng of people crowding the doorway but finally managed to get through. Once in, two grim looking security guards checked her bag and coat whilst she stepped through a metal detector. Brown eyes rolled in their sockets as she watched the very old and very racist security guard take extra care rifling through her things before returning it to her with a smirk. At times like these she didn't know whether he was leering at her or belittling her under those wide frame sunglasses but once again, she didn't say anything.

Once through that ordeal Seble could finally make her way to work. Oddly enough she was still working on that alien tech where usually she would spend less than 2 weeks on any one project. Walking down the stark white corridor to lab number 16, she felt the usual fear and anxiety which had started to plague her ever since finding out about the truth creeping up on her.

Entering the lab, she took a deep breath as the usual smells and sounds of the lab peeps working on their projects surrounded her, instantly calming her. Now whistling to herself and softly bouncing on the balls of her feet as she walked passed a variety of beeping machinery, sterile glass cabinets housing a variety of alien biological samples and miraculously one full body specimen of a small, yellow, rat-like alien, eyes bulging out from their sockets and mouth agape, showing tiny white teeth and a long green tongue, Seble dubbed him 'Sparky,' as when she was helping Dr. Wittaker with the autopsy the little monster had shocked her fingertips just as she reached for it. The good doctor had assured her, whilst laughing, that it was nothing more than some mild static electricity, a remnant from the plasma preservative that it had been kept in. To his defense he had been trying to be heard in the midst of her screaming and waving her hand about like she was afraid it was going melt off. That little incident still embarrassed her, and sometimes she felt like the rest of the guys at lab 16 had made a little joke about her at her expense, if the new stress balls they kept leaving at her desk were any indication. She arrived at her desk, replying to the few 'hellos' and 'good mornings' that she received from her colleagues. Letting out a huge sigh, she put her lab coat on and made to start working, only to be stopped by one of the last people in the world that she currently wanted to talk to.

"Ah, Seble, good morning hun, didn't see you come in," purred Francis, today dressed in a bright yellow blazer and tight fitting washed out jeans. His bright white t-shirt barely covered his bulging belly, which shook and flopped with every step closer to her that he took, and his thinning copper hair was slicked back in what Seble assumed was a feeble attempt at a pony tail. "Just a second hun, I'll be right there with you."

Before the incident, Seble had enjoyed Francis' company and his quirky appearance hadn't offended her at all. Despite his relative strangeness and minimalist sense of style, he always had a kind word for her, and despite knowing the fact that she was underage and didn't technically have any formal education other than high school (of which she hadn't even graduated) he hadn't yet squealed on her to the higher ups, stating that the sacrifice that she had made by denying herself a normal life was already punishment enough, and that her skills and work spoke volumes in her defense.

At the time, his words had soothed and touched her, now knowing what she knew, it only helped fuel her paranoia. For all she knew he had been manipulating her all along. Forcing a smile as he continued to make his way to her (the lab was very crowded) she began to wonder if his relative good nature, especially towards her, was just a ruse to have her more compliant, basically so that she'd do as he says, no questions asked. But blind faith had never sat well with her, and it had been him who had set her this work.

What she knew was that Wayne Tech was selling their stockpiled information on the alien technology and biology that they had amassed over the years as well as a lot of the renewable energy and medical advancements to Lexcorp, doing it in small transfers on the third of every month until Lexcorp was completely up to date. Any new data was directly being sent to them too. Francis was one of the obvious culprits but it also seemed that Dr. Wittaker and one of her fellow assistant from Engineering were involved too, as well as a select few of the Wayne Enterprises board of directors. Payments to Wayne Enterprises were sent to an off shore account and unfortunately that level of security was still beyond her. She didn't know the motive behind all of this, whether it was greed or fear that drove them to betray the company. She had thought that Francis was an honest and trustworthy guy, and how wrong she had been scared her a little. It was like seeing the people she worked with in a whole new light.

Which is why when Francis did finally manage to reach her, she didn't move her chair back in anger as she first intended towards what she now dubbed his 'slimy-lying-no-good-double-crosser' smile but simply sat there waiting for him to speak.

"So, tell me sweety, how's progress on the extraterrestrial computer project going? Any new findings?" He queried, looking mildly excited. His voice carried a throaty, yet rough sound, a smokers voice, and she could smell the cigarettes on his breath and clothes. She scrunched up her nose slightly, feeling like she should scoot back a few paces.

Suppressing a grimace, She turned towards her computer, booting up the external hard drive and accessing the file from last night. She hated explaining things, and tended to be awkward around people despite having had a lot of public speaking practice at the quarterly meetings.

"Yeah, actually I have Francis I mean, this tech is amazing. It's basically like nothing I've ever seen before! Uhhh, I mean obviously it is, it's extraterrestrial object after all..." she blushed, noticing that she had started to ramble on, and cleared her throat. Damn it, if only this part could be done by a machine too! "Following from my report on Monday, I would like to add that the box does show to have had some previous human tampering, as you can see there is a titanium alloy mixed in with the alien alloy. So someone else has already modified this tech. It also seems to emit a mixture of tachyon and zeta particles, giving the impression that the box may be used as a form of transportation?" she paused, glancing at him as if looking for confirmation. Bad habit from her younger years. "I only just started theses tests so they are preliminary, just, just a minute..." she tapped a few commands on the keyboard. "The zeta particles are currently on earth being used as teleportation mechanisms by the Justice league and the, ummm, tachyon particles would indicate a temporal aspect which may..."

"Great!" Francis hurriedly interrupted, clapping his pudgy little hands together and wriggling his pudgy little fingers, forest green eyes glinting in glee. "Have a full report on my desk by closing time hun. If you can't then you can email it to me later on this evening. As always, I understand you have to go pick up your two younger siblings form school later this afternoon." At the end of his words his tone took a more sympathetic tone, a frown replacing his beaming smile. _'As always,' _there it was again, like he was reminding her that he was on _her _side. Blinking slowly at the rudeness of being interrupted like that, Seble took a while to smile back and nod her head, affirming that everything would be ready by the afternoon. Squeezing her shoulder gently and giving her a small smile he walked away, and she couldn't help but think '_traitor!' _to his back, though for the life of her she would never say it out loud. Running her hands though her mid length curls and messing it further than it already was she groaned and got to work, taking the box to the testing and metallurgy room in lab 2 and trudging across yet more stark white corridors and taking the elevator down to level 2. Once again the box sent a little shock racing up her arm as she touched it. A buzzing feeling, like a gentle vibrations enveloped her hand and after noting this to Dr. Whittaker a couple of days back he gave her a strange look, then told her she was probably feeling nothing but the small computers energy source humming with activity, so she never mentioned it again.

Along the way, she worried about her trust issue again. Telling the wrong person could have catastrophic consequences and yet telling no one went against everything that Seble believed in. She reached a corner and turned, only to come face to face to yet more unpleasant, or more correctly uncomfortable, company.

Richard Grayson, ward of Bruce Wayne and over-seer of the Wayne Tech facility, was striding purposely down the hallway, in her direction. Wandering if it would be too late to turn around and pretend she didn't see him she stopped as he suddenly noticed her and waving, quickened his pace towards her.

"Seble hi, funnily enough I was just coming to see you," he said, a warm smile on his face.

To any other girl, the tall specimen of a dark haired Adonis who preferred to be known by the name of Dick Grayson may seem as an extroverted, out-going, happy-go-lucky kind of guy. With his killer smile, lightly tanned skin, think coal black hair, blue eyes the color of the ocean and chiseled features, not least the well-toned body that he would never be caught trying to hide in his many form fitting shirts and suits, many a girl would give her right hand to spend the day being _pestered _by him.

Not that he was a pest. He was nice and always bothered to bring her and everyone working late in the labs a cup of coffee and it wasn't like it was his job to do that. It wasn't anybody's job! She just didn't know how to handle a guy being nice her, or know what was appropriate for her to do since she basically avoided any and all social situations like a plague. And she didn't want to insult anyone accidently. She thought then that the best thing to do would be to avoid him and thus limit the number of times that she'd make a fool out of herself.

"Seble, Seble!" he snapped his fingers over her face, a curious look in his eyes, thus jerking her out of her own thoughts. "What are you always thinking about when I'm talking to you? Seriously, you should try to be a bit more attentive." He joked.

"Sorry sir," she apologized. "Is there something that I can do for you."

Dick smiled at her again, this time looking a tad more serious despite it. "Actually yes. Bruce is at Wayne Tech today and he wants to see you," he pointed at her. "It's very important and about the work that you're doing right now. Please bring any work files that you have with you and you should head on over immediately"

"Wh-h-hat?"

"I said Mr. Bruce Wayne wants to see you. He's in lab 2, I think you were going in that general direction anyway. Come on, quickly now I'll walk with you."

"Oh yes, okay... Did he tell you anything else?"

"No Seble, you're going to have to find the rest out on your own"

His voice seemed exceptionally ominous to her, but even then it sounded distant and weak. Suddenly her heartbeat was too loud to her ears, drowning out his voice. Did he know? And if so how much? Seble could feel herself panicking. Damn her cautious nature, she should have just said something and now, now she was the one who would look suspicious!

But wait, maybe it wasn't that? Maybe she'd be commended for her exceptional work and time-based efficiency!

Scoffing at herself for her overly optimistic way of thinking, Seble took a deep breath and managed to calm herself down and level a small smile at an impatient looking Dick..

"I'll make my way to Mr. Wayne right now Mr. Grayson. Thanks for letting me know." She turned around to continue on to lab 2, steeling herself for the confrontation. Dick fell into step beside her, and for the first time since she knew him, she took comfort in his presence.

Finally reaching lab 2 Seble stepped past the metallic doors, walking through a surprisingly better kept lab to the small office room situated at the back, where most meetings took place. Swallowing past a painful lump in her throat she knocked on the plain white door (why was everything in this place so white?) and entered when she heard the muffled reply. The room was very bright, with the morning sun glaring from the tall wall-to-wall windows. The room was sparsely furnished with the bare necessities: a stainless-steel bookcase filled to the brim with books, a mahogany desk and chair facing away from the window and sun, and a pair of chairs for guests. Once her eyes finally adjusted to the glare, Seble noticed Mr. Wayne sitting at the far end of the desk, posture relaxed and open, but his eyes betrayed a more serious and stern man. Even sitting he seemed imposing, and despite not being blood related his features held a strong resemblance to Dick's. His muscular frame dwarfed the chair he was sitting on, which was made for the much smaller head of lab 2. His skin was paler than Dick's but his eyes were the same ocean blue as his son's as well as his slicked back black hair. Strong, handsome features finished his look. His hands were placed, laced together, in front of him on the desk and seeing Seble and Dick enter, he gestured for them to sit.

"Ms. Howard, please be seated." Came the deep, reverberating voice of Bruce Wayne. Seble managed to move leaden legs to sit on the chair offered to her. Dick plopped himself beside her, crossing his legs and looking like he hadn't a care in the world. Seble couldn't raise her eyes to meet Bruce's, knowing that this was the biggest tell in the whole freaking universe but unable to stop herself. However, Mr. Wayne needed to only clear his throat once and her head snapped up so fast.

"Do you know why I have called you here Ms. Howard?" He asked. Seble could think of a few reasons why, but none that she would willingly admit to, at least not until there really wasn't any room for doubt anymore.

"No Mr. Wayne," She whispered. "I really have no idea."

Bruce Wayne arched an eyebrow, almost as if in disappointment, and with that solitary gesture Seble knew that he knew and now he knew that she knew that he knew but still lied to him. She could feel sweat starting to bead on her forehead and after what seemed like an eternal moment, he spoke again, heaving a great sigh.

"Ms. Howard, it has come to my recent attention that you have falsified your academic and employment records and as such I am required to terminate your employment contract with Wayne Tech," He paused glancing briefly at Dick before starting again. "I appreciate all the good and dedicated work that you have provided us in the time that you have worked here and a full severance check will be handed to you on the completion of all the formalities. I expect you to clear out your desk and hand over all unfinished work to your supervisor."

A shocked silence ensued, then Dick spoke in a stunned whisper.

"You can't be serious Bruce."

* * *

**A bit too much prose but necessary to show my OC's background I think? The first few chapters are a bit of an origin story I'm afraid but I try to add parts of the plot through the perspective of other characters from the DC universe, and plus I love writing about Batman, both in and outside his perspective!**


	3. Decisions

**Sorry, sorry! Believe it or not this chapter and the next were supposed to be out Last Friday (I decided on the definite updating schedule last Monday) but had some major laptop issues that needed to be resolved. Add uni to that and there's a recipe for disaster right there! Again, please excuse me, but from now on expect two chapters every Friday unless stated otherwise. Enjoy!**

**Thanks for following and reviewing guys, it was a nice surprise and it made me so happy! **

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**Chapter 2: Decisions**

**WAYNE TECH**

**SEPTEMBER 03, 11:02 EST**

A few minutes after Seble had left the room Dick's face fell from his usual smiling façade and he frowned, hard. Did that actually really happen? Had Bruce kept him out of the loop,yet again, despite **him** being the one who asked Dick to be a part of this case!?

"Bruce mind telling me what's going on in your head? There was a plan, a clearly laid out, perfectly good, plan that we had, just 30 minutes ago, come up together and what did you do? You threw it all away without letting me know, again," he veritably exploded in a flurry of motion, hands flying every which way, showing his resentment at having his opinion so belittled once again by the older man. "Could we, please, have one case where you don't completely blind-side me and do whatever you like?"

"Apologies Dick, but this new information came to light a few minutes ago and frankly I felt that it took precedence over our 'mole' situation. Child labor laws are, as you should know, handled very strictly in Gotham, especially if in connection with powerful corporations such as Wayne Enterprises," he turned away from the still fuming boy and rested his head on his hand. Really, he shouldn't even have to explain this, it was obvious. "I can't let anything else go wrong here Dick, It was essential I removed her immediately, I can't afford a lawsuit."

"But what of-"

Bruce held out a hand, causing him to shut his mouth mid-sentence. "I will handle that aspect myself Dick, do not worry. I know it is important to find out what she knows on the lab 16 mole topic, but it is even more crucial to get her out of there should matters get worse and no," again he had to stop Dick from jumping in, who now half stood from his chair, an indignant look on his face. "I do not think she is directly involved in all this, but she is still quite young and without fully understanding the threat level and the parties involved it would be unwise to keep her there, especially knowing what I know now. And you protest too much Dick, is the girls safety not an issue here? Keeping her at lab 16 would put her, a minor, in the direct line of fire, and I can't say I am comfortable with that."

"Of course her safety is important Bruce, but we can't afford to be idle either, not after just barely averting a 'Reach apocalypse' and still having so many loose ends to deal with. This matter could get way worse if we don't deal with it at once!" Dick stood up, throwing his hands in exasperation. "We could have used that information to our advantage, kept her there to be our spy and gather information on Patrick among other things. Letting her go was a strategic mistake."

Bruce sighed. No, he wasn't going to get through to him, not when he was like this. Standing up he buttoned his suit's jacket and tugged it straight. He leveled him with his most no nonsense glare. "'I'm ending this conversation, we will not speak of this again, agreed?"

"…Yes."

He looked so dejected that Bruce couldn't help smiling; the boy simply took on too much responsibility for someone his age. The smile caught Dick off guard. Usually Bruce smiled liked just when he was about to knock him flat on his back on one of their sparring matches, or generally when they were out in town playing up his Bruce Wayne, playboy philanthropist persona. Dick's eyes narrowed suspiciously, dark brows furrowing into deep crevices, but Bruce only chuckled and made his way to the door, opening it and holding it out for Dick.

"Needless to say Dick, I still stand by my decision, so you can save your breath from trying to change my mind." Still that displeased look… He almost rolled his eyes. "Look, I will see to her gaining admission at Gotham Academy providing she passes the entrance exam and, supposedly, I will also see to her accommodation. I understand that she cares for two small boys too, and will send someone to discuss a bursary on behalf of the Academy that would help cover their expenses. I don't believe she'd want to meet with anyone from Wayne Enterprises for a long while," Bruce's tone held a note of finality that Dick knew from past experience permitted no arguments. He had to convince himself that it was for the best, that a normal girl her age was best removed from all this corporate drama. And at least Bruce wasn't going to report her to the police or social services, which was good? Perhaps he was being a little too calculating and he should lay off this for a while. So, still scowling, Dick followed Bruce out, still not fully convinced that the older man had made the right decision but resigned that nothing he said would change it.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Seble's life was officially over.

Done. Gone. Finished. Any and all other synonyms to the vicious ending of her and her family's future. And all it took was 5 minutes for _Mr. Wayne _to rip her whole world into pieces. Ok, that was unfair. The man technically had done nothing wrong, she was the one who had lied to everyone in the first place, and now her lie was finally caught. Simple.

In the lady's toilet, second floor and just a few long doors down form lab 2, she watched the tap water flow down the sink. The hot water tap was on full blast, so hot that the steam rising from the wash bowl had already obscured the mirror and those adjacent.

Holding on to the rim, she tried hard no to throw up. Her hair had stuck to the back of her neck, and her heart still threatened to burst out of her ribcage. The fear that had hit her the moment she left that room still followed her, and she had been so thrown by everything that she'd forgotten to tell Mr. Wayne about the Lexcorp stuff. Oh crap. Closing her eyes, she tried to swallow the bitter bile threatening to climb up her throat. It was the reason why she turned the hot water on, she didn't want to have to see herself at the moment. The sight of her failure made her sick and looking at the scared, wide eyed young women standing there, shaking and confused wasn't going to help her at all plan what she should do next.

Without a job, she could kiss her apartment goodbye. The landlady was old and mean, and demanded rent to be paid on time or you're gone the next day. The kid's school too... She threw a hand to her mouth, sure she was going to puke. No, what she needed was a plan, if not for herself then for her brothers. She needed to face it, she always knew that someday someone might figure out her lie and she should have had a contingency plan set up just in case. But she procrastinated, afraid that by working on one she would be acknowledging the fact that ultimately what she was doing was wrong, and that consequent guilt would have stopped her with going through with it. Seeing as how violently she was reacting now, it was obvious that Seble wasn't a very strong minded or spontaneous kinda girl, and it had taken her every ounce of will power that she had to get the job, but if she was going to get through this, she'd need to fix up and _work _through it. She needed a plan.

Steeling herself and breathing deeply through her mouth, she stood up, brushing her curls off from her sweat slicked face. She turned off the tap, effectively shutting off the source of all that suffocating heat. No, she wouldn't break down. Whatever she had to do, she would make sure that at least her family was well taken care of, and for that, she was going to have to see Mr. Wayne again.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**WAYNE TOWER, GOTHAM CITY**

**SEPTEMBER 03, 12:45 EST**

Bruce thumbed through the security file that he had Alfred put together on Wayne Tech, and despite the contents being minimal and far from complete, at least now he had a vague idea as to what had happened during his absence.

It would seem that lab 16 was worse off than he originally thought. The chief supervisor, a Francis Patrick, was the foremost link between Lexcorp and Wayne Enterprise. It seemed that Patrick's main job was to find individuals who could be _persuaded _to switch loyalties and offer them substantial cash sums in return for their work, which would then be directly sent over to Lexcorp. However... the curious thing was that none of the payments actually made the defector's bank account, but were instead pocketed by Patrick himself. So why? Why did all these people turn to corporate espionage if the money, the primary incentive, was clearly not part of the deal? Bruce could feel his anger resurface. It was like finding the answer to one question only to find a thousand more waiting just behind! And to make matters worse, a third of his board of directors had been 'bought' over too. Lucius, his CEO, remained loyal of course, and he was grateful for this, he wasn't sure he'd be able to deal with it if he betrayed him, everyone else except him were replaceable, and things were already looking so grim.

Especially since as of this morning and unknown buyer had become a significant shareholder of Wayne Enterprises.

Grimacing, Bruce wondered how he had let this happen. Granted, he had been off-world for quite a bit of time, but he didn't believe in making up excuses for himself, even if they were legitimate. He should have returned on his own, somehow figured out a way to bribe those judges despite Clark's and his _posse's _misgivings and departed from Rimbor to deal with the issues on Earth. No, Gotham was, and will always be, his first priority, and far superseded any need to keep up pretences of being a 'Superman' type hero.

But here he was, stuck in a mess of his own making. This was what 'team work' got you, a clean conscience perhaps but also umpteen amounts of wasted time. Sighing in frustration, he went over his options: he could fire Patrick and the guilty members of the staff for corporate espionage, but then he'd lose his link to the mystery buyer at Lexcorp (which Bruce assumed may just be Lex Luthor himself), or he could visit Patrick as Batman and interrogate him, but then risk the other party being tipped off and lose the connection anyway. It was obvious what the best course of action would be, to monitor and investigate Patrick, and hopefully he would lead him directly to the source of all this mess.

His desk phone started to ring, flashing red as a shrill beeping filled the room, effectively snapping him out of his thoughts. He picked up, saying a curt yes as his secretary's voice came over the other end.

"Mr. Wayne, there is a call for you from Wayne Tech labs. She says her name is Ms. Seble Howards and that it's important? May I transfer the call?"

Bruce frowned. He hadn't expected her to call him at all. "Put her through," he replied. After a few seconds, Ms. Howards weak voice came through.

"Mr. Wayne? Hello, I-I'm, ummm, I need to tell you something very important? Is it, maybe possible to talk to you sometime soon? Hopefully today, it can't wait it's about the lab and... I don't think it's something that should be con-conversed over the phone," her voice seemed to catch while she spoke, and Bruce felt somehow reassured that at least one of his employees at lab 16 had somewhat of a conscience.

"Yes Ms. Howard. If nothing else comes up I should be able to speak with you later on this afternoon. Would 4pm be convenient?"

"Yes, thank you that would be perfect."

"Very well Ms. Howard, I will see you then."

Hanging up, Bruce felt a brief sense of relief. He had put Ms. Howard out of his mind for the time being but he was glad that she had approached him first. He returned to his files but paused when he felt a touch of cold wind and heard the rustle of his drapes and, raising an eyebrow, he addressed the trespasser standing beside the wall-to-floor windows behind him. "Clark, most people use the front door when visiting a friend's work place," He said.

Clark Kent, self-professed Superman and savior of human kind smiled broadly at his old friend. He stood casually at 6'3" cutting an imposing figure softened by his immaculately combed back black hair and kind blue eyes which were partially hidden by his wide-frame glasses. His handsome, chiseled facial features glowed with a happiness reserved only for his close friends and family. Placing his hands inside his khaki colored trouser pockets and striding briskly towards his best-friend, he sat down on the corner of Bruce's desk, casually swinging his leg off the side.

"Cut me some slack Bruce, I've been in Qurac for most of this morning on an assignment for the Planet and I haven't even had a chance to shower yet," He laughed as he picked up a paperweight from on top of some important looking papers. "And besides, most of your friends have the power of flight Bruce remember? You shouldn't have such a _huge _complex over it." He grinned mischievously. This was an old joke between the Kryptonian and himself, which to him had gotten old the first time he said it, but remained a classic in Clark Kent's eyes time and time again. Clark was fiddling with the paperweight, a plain spherical object made from glass, a present from a younger Dick, and Bruce found himself growing impatient and started tapping a fast staccato with the end of his pen on his hardwood desk. He always did this; it was like all he ever did was intrude on him when he was working and waste all his goddamn time.

As if remembering something, Clark's head perked up and he dropped the paperweight onto the desk. "Also not to be rude Bruce, but you have got to have a word with your secretary. It's as if she's made it her life's mission or something to stop me from coming in no matter how many times you tell her not to. I'd fire her if I was the heartless owner of a corporate giant like you but since I am not, I'd suggest giving her a stern reprimand." Clark finished on a teasing note. Heartless indeed, if he was as such, he'd have kicked out the Kryptonian ages ago.

The second time today that he felt like rolling his eyes. Sighing, Bruce brought back the conversation to Clark's unplanned visit. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company? I remember telling you yesterday that I would be very busy for the next few weeks and shouldn't be disturbed unless **absolutely **necessary."

Clark frowned. "And this is important," he stressed, looking towards the ceiling, tapping a rhythm against his leg as he thought. "Ah, yes, I've looked into the leads you gave me regarding Lexcorp as Clark Kent the reporter, but," taking a small pen drive from his pocket he handed it over to Bruce. "Unfortunately I was only able to get _so _much from their computers; most of the really good stuff was layered with levels of encryption too advanced for me to get by."

Bruce turned the pen drive over in his hands. Well, some information was always better than none after all. "That's more than expected, what with your level of computer skills," he dodged Clarks playful punch. "Hopefully we'll know more from this than we did before."

Inserting the drive into his desk computer, he entered his password then opened the file labeled 'Bond,' another of Clark's little jokes. He opened the very first text file, skimming over the contents and as he did so, a pleased smile spread over his face. And, look, there were 23 more!

"What is it Bruce, What did you find?" Clark asked.

Eyes never leaving the screen Bruce replied, "Exactly what I needed."

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**WAYNE TECH, GOTHAM CITY**

**SEPTEMBER 03, 15:45 EST**

Picking up Malik and Kevin and taking them home without letting them know what had happened had been hard, but no harder than clearing out her desk and walking past her colleagues at lab 16 had been. Francis had beleaguered her with questions the most, and she was forced to tell him the truth since he had been her supervisor. His fake sympathetic look had sent her skin crawling, and she didn't doubt her decision to tell Mr. Wayne about him one bit.

Returning to Wayne Tech after feeding and assigning chores to her younger brothers, she steeled herself to go through the humiliating process of returning to her former workplace. Luckily, the guards at the front desk had already been informed by Mr. Wayne of her arrival, saving her the trouble of explaining her situation herself. She was told that Mr. Wayne had yet to arrive, but would see her in the general meeting room in lab 2, where their last meeting had been.

Swallowing, she hoped that this one would go better than the last. Making her way through the stark white building she noticed that a lot of the lab personnel had already left for the day. This wasn't unusual, as the only requirement at Wayne Tech was for the work assigned to be finished, and as long as that was done you were allowed to leave pretty much any time you wanted. However, what was unusual was that lab after lab was empty, and Sebel had never seen so many people finish their work so early. Even she had had a few days were she needed to ran back to the lab to finish some urgent work and clocking in some overtime. Frowning to herself at the strangeness of it all, she promptly shrugged it off and continued to make her way to lab 2.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**WAYNE TECH, GOTHAM CITY**

**SEPTEMBER 03, 19:15 EST**

Three freaking hours. Seble has been sitting in the meeting room, waiting for Mr. Wayne for three freaking hours and no one had come to so much as to see if she was still here.

She sat with her head in her hands. She was tired and had a headache, and if she didn't hear from someone soon she was leaving. She groaned. Okay, so this was partly her fault. She should have gone down to reception once the dude had been late by 30 minutes but she kept putting it off, god she was so lazy sometimes… and now here she was, waiting for a guy that was _obviously _not coming!

She groaned again, loudly this time and stood up. Forget this, she tried, and now she was out of here. Besides, Malik and Kevin would be getting hungry right about now. She left the meeting room and made her way through the long corridor to the elevator. It had taken all her will-power, and she meant **all **of it, to call that guy up and he stood her up. Well, jokes on him now who's going to tell him the crazy suspicious things going on in lab 16, or of the strange bio-computer that had become the center of Francis' attention?

Aw who was she kidding, of course she'd tell him, it was his right to know if something fishy really was going down at his company. She pressed the elevator button and stood back, but the small blinking light didn't go on. Frowning she tried pressing the button a few more times but nothing. Great, stairs it is then. Muttering to herself she made her way to them, luckily they were just a few steps away from the elevators and she was only on the second floor. She turned to open the stair door but found that locked too. Maybe the custodial staff had thought that the lab floors were empty and had locked up, seeing how pretty much everyone had left by the time she got here at 4-ish. Good for them, but sucks for her though, as being the cheapskate that she was, she never did get around to buying a cellphone so the only way she could contact the guards down on the ground floor would be by the phone in the main lab 2 work area.

Going back the whole way sucked but hey, that's how the building was. Nothing but straight lines, no short cuts anywhere except at the meeting rooms, which can be entered through both the main lab area and the hallway, though technically only the supervisors and higher had the access key to the hallway entrance, so the regular drones had to go in the long way.

Which was why as Seble was making her way back to the lab and found the hallway entrance to lab 2 slightly ajar she was very curious to see just who had entered through there, especially since when she left it had been locked, and also the floor was totally shut down too.

Curiosity got the better of her so she peeked in, but there was no one there. Finding this odd she decided to look further in. It's not like she was going out of her way, if anything this route was much faster than the long way around, and whoever was in here might also have a key for the stairs, hopefully. Traversing the distance in the small room quickly she went inside the main lab 2 work area. The room was dark, and there were no visible signs of people around, but she could swear that she heard voices coming from one of the testing side labs in the east wing. The east wing had been used in the past for weapons and military tech assembly and had yet to be reassigned to a new division so most of the time lay empty. This only made things more suspicious in her mind, because no one in Wayne Tech had been given clearance to enter that lab yet, and yet that was definitely were the voices were coming from

A little more cautious now Seble made sure not to make a sound as she approached the lab marked MA1, by-passing a few workbenches, chairs and metal-alloy testing tools that someone had carelessly left out in the open. The voices had gotten clearer now and, surprise surprise, guess who?

"I'm afraid Mr. Calculator that we will be unable to continue our work here at Wayne Tech. It appears that the 'upper management' has caught wind of our little set-up here and shall be cleaning house soon, and I don't wish for either myself or our research to end up in **these** human's hands." Came the rough tones of Francis' voice. He seemed to be speaking to someone whose voice Seble didn't recognize and as she couldn't really see from where she was crouching she couldn't identify them by sight either.

The other person grunted, "That's fine my employer has what he needs anyway. Make sure you don't leave any… loose ends. We don't want any loose lips running about."

"You can rest assured that no one else knows of our business, and those who did have been, as your lot so aptly put it, made to see the Light!"

"My employer and I thank you for your discretion then Mr. Patricks." He picked something up that clattered on a hard surface. "This is all the remaining research?"

"Yes! All hard copies and digital, everything and everything and now _nothings left at Wayne Tech_~." He sang mockingly, he started giggling but as his 'friend' remained quiet, he stopped quickly with an awkward little cough. "Hmm, unfortunately the little dear who was leading the analysis on the transmuted MotherBox was… let go this morning, bless the poor little lamb," Seble gritted her teeth, the nerve of this man! "Well at least we know now a little more about this little one than we did before. Alas, anything further will have to be conducted at your own labs."

"Hmm, that's fine, that's fine. Do you know where this researcher of yours currently lives? Perhaps she could be convinced to work with us, especially if she no longer has employment here."

"Ah yes, I didn't get the chance to ask her, and she didn't seem the type to switch loyalties so easily at the time. Bu-t," he elongated the word as he stretched? Or at least that's what it sounded like. "Hmmm, being out of that human's skin feels so good! Errr, I meant to say that termination does make one bitter against ones former employers so she may be persuaded?"

"Then pay her a visit. She's one of yours and would be more inclined to trust you."

"No can do sir! I am going back by boom tube for good this time, my work here at Wayne Tech is finished. I simply need to set up the explosive here and blow this place up. But perhaps one of my drones may be of use? The Dr. Whittaker was on good terms with the girl from what I remember. Acceptable?"

"Yes, acceptable. As long as the job gets done."

"And besides, if not your people can always find another way to convince her, she does have these two lovely little boys. If they were to suddenly disappear from school…"

Seble gave a small involuntary gasp and the room quieted. She slammed her hand to her mouth. Oh crap, no! These people are crazy; they were talking not only about some very obvious corporate espionage and insider trading, but also kidnapping her two younger brothers! She knew she had to get out of there fast, the topics of their conversation labeled them as obviously crazy dangerous people, but panic dulled her already very slow reflexes and it took her longer than a moment to gather her legs beneath her and scramble away from her hiding place but not fast enough as soon a large shadow, larger even than Francis' bulky frame, blocked out the faint light coming from the adjacent room. Her damn curiosity forced her to turn around and she stopped. It wasn't just large; it was huge and definitely not human. The creature's frame now blocked out the entire doorway obstructing the light almost completely so that all she could see was a shadow surrounded by a halo of light. The creature was easily 7'3" with a grotesque ape like posture and what appeared to be two huge wings folded by its side. She couldn't tell much more but that was enough for her to know she needed to get the hell up out of here.

"My my, if it isn't little Seble! What are you doing here hun? Labs are closed, you shouldn't be here. Here, let me turn on the lights." There was a click and the room was flooded with light. Even before she could see him she knew who that voice belonged to but her brain just couldn't connect the man she knew to the monster standing before her.

Francis. Out of everything it turned out that Francis was some crazy demon alien looking monster with gold armor plated green skin, a large mouth full of sharp teeth that looked impossible to speak with and two small deep set block red eyes, sclera, iris and all. The Greek letter omega was emblazoned on his- his? It's? – chest glowing in a pulsing red light. She couldn't stop shaking, her legs her entire body, it was terrifying; this thing was the stuff of nightmares, books, movies even, but **not** the kind of thing you'd see in real life!? It stepped towards her forcing her to scuttle back. It was laughing, actually laughing, as it taunted he by taking a small step forward for every time she moved backwards. She whimpered, feeling tears threatening to spill. She wasn't brave, she still slept with a light on sometimes, and she could never watch a horror movie without losing a week's sleep over it, so for her now it was like her amygdala was on overload. But even as her back came into contact with a lab bench and she could go no further, the second man emerged from the side room, looking bored and slightly annoyed. He was talli-sh with a bookish air enhanced by his well-tailored khaki colored suit with the jacket off, slung over his arm, and a red plaid tie over a white shirt with suspenders. Crooked glasses perched on the end of a long hooked nose. His small eyes peered at her as he smoothed down his golden sideburns and his lip curled in disgust at the sight of her.

"Mr. Patrick, get rid of her if you please. It doesn't bear mentioning again that I do so loathe loose ends." He sneered. Promptly, he turned to leave, his polished black-heeled shoes clicking loudly on the tiled floor. After a while there was a loud but muffled boom and then silence.

Francis turned back round to her after watching the Calculator man leave. "Well then Seble, sorry but you heard the man. We can't have you running around telling people what you heard and saw here now can we?" Without even the slightest pause it opened its mouth wide, almost wide enough to unhinge a normal person's jaw. The red omega started to glow a constant bright red light and that caught her attention, something was going to happen and judging by the course of their (one-sided) conversation it wasn't going to go well for her. So just as a small red ball of light formed at the back of its throat, she leapt over the bench with a dexterity she never knew she had and ran, not even glancing back once. The doorway leading to the main exit was closest so that was the direction she was headed in. She just prayed that she'd make it in time because what Francis the alien was doing looked like some kind of mouth laser beam and she didn't know if she could even outrun something like that!

Her breath was coming out harsh and Seble had a feeling that she should duck behind a bench while she still could; she wasn't going to make it. Just as she pulled out one of the stools and crouched underneath the small space beneath the bench, Francis let loose the beam from its mouth.

The resulting explosion was deafening. Seble's scream was lost in the amount of noise that followed as she was flung, bench and all, half-way across the room. Her eyes were kept tightly closed as she crashed onto the floor, a fine powder of dust following her as she fell. The explosion wasn't as big as Seble had thought it would be, but it was still pretty strong. She couldn't open her eyes from the shock and dust and, mind still reeling, Francis seemed like the least of her worries at the moment.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**


	4. Luck

**Chapter 4: Luck**

**WAYNE TECH, GOTHAM CITY**

**SEPTEMBER 03, 19:29 EST**

She couldn't believe this was actually happening

Had it happened? Was there even the slightest chance that she hit her head at some point today and she was hallucinating it all? And what the hell was this anyway? A piercing ringing sound was all she could manage to hear and as disoriented as she felt she couldn't be completely sure how real anything was. Damn, that explosion must have rocked her harder than she first thought!

Sprawled on the ground, she groaned as she tried to stand up, only to fall back flat on her face. Ouch. She breathed heavily through her nose to try and get some oxygen to her brain, and after a few breaths she was able to sit up without feeling like she was going to puke. Eyes half closed, she looked around, noticing the half collapsed ceiling and wires protruding from the hole in the wall. The room was dark, lit only by the single surviving lightbulb, which hung swinging on the far end of the lab. Dust pervaded the air making visibility even worse. She realized that the only reason she had survived the blast was because of the overturned lab desk that had blocked her from the worst of it. Finally, some good luck! Peering over the edge, she tried to see if Francis- alien- thing was still there. Hopefully he'd left thinking he'd killed her. No such luck. He was still there, fat tail swinging behind him as his incredibly large wings propelled him off the ground to hover a few inches from the floor. He seemed to be looking for her, and Seble felt a tiny bit of admiration for his dedication towards his task. She smacked herself on the forehead, realizing she was falling into hysteria. She had to get out of there fast and admiring her would-be killer's tenacity wasn't going to help her.

Even as the ringing in her ears quieted down she felt the air in the room charge, setting the hair on her arms on end. Then the whole room lit up as another explosion shook the building, raining plaster and saturating the air with impossibly more dust. She could feel herself choking, and no amount of coughing was clearing her airways. Her eyes stung and she wiped them with the back of her hands, making them worst. Everything was wrong, everything, from the alien looking humanoid to the fact that _Francis had somehow turned into one._ Oh damn, she was going to die, she was going to die and it was going to be at the hands of a fat alien Francis!

Scrambling on hands and knees, she left the safety of the overturned desk to get ready to make a break for the door. If she could just find someone then maybe they could help her? Hell, anywhere else would be better than staying here. Steeling herself, she watched Francis, hoping for a chance to bolt. As he turned his back to her, she immediately launched herself at the exit, moving faster than she ever had before. She crossed half the room in seconds, dodging scattered equipment, stools and ornamental plants. Now, just a few meters more...

Her lungs couldn't take much more. Seble had never been much of an athlete, being more the kid who ended up getting picked last kinda girl than the kid everyone wants on their team, so she knew she could only keep this up for a few more minutes at best, but finally her goal was in sight, the exit from lab 2. She was just about to reach the door. Extending her hand so as to open the automatic door quickly, praying to God that if he got her through this she'd definitely add a cardio program to her morning to-do list, she added a burst of speed to cover the last meter. Just a few more steps...

But then, unexpectedly, her legs were too weak to hold her up. Stumbling to a stop, Seble now found it a bit too hard to breathe too. Come on, all right she was terrible at running, or any form of exercise for that matter, but she had been _so_ _close_, why'd she have to stop now? Her breaths came in short gasps which rattled in her chest. Now, she was on her knees. Odd, very odd. She coughed, and something curiously red spattered on the white tiled floor beneath her. Head lolling on her shoulders, it took her a while to focus and realize what that was.

Blood. Her blood. There was more too, coming from her chest. Now how had she not noticed that? She gently pressed a hand on it and it came away with more red. If she could she would laugh. The wound was small and she didn't feel any pain at all; the hit must have deadened the pain receptors in the vicinity of the wound, how kind. She fell and crashed on the floor, gasps coming shorter and shorter as she lay bleeding.

Francis' grotesque body came into view, as if coalescing from the dust and shadows. His green and gold legs took up most of her vision and as she looked up, she saw his large mouth open wide in a sharp toothed grin. How could anyone be so happy to watch someone die? Die? Crap, she probably was right? She fought to keep her eyes open even as strength seeped out of her with every heartbeat. She had to keep him in sight. She didn't know exactly why but something inside her told her not to take her eyes off of the monster. As if sensing her struggle to keep living, he leaned down and gently swept a long clawed finger down her cheek in an almost fatherly fashion. Ashamed, Seble could feel her eyes drooping in comfort as her will shattered. Sleep, sleep would be better, if she could sleep everything would be okay.

"My dear child, it was so unfortunate that you had to see this," Francis' voice was distorted to her ears, as if coming from far away. "Tut, tut, and you were my favorite! So impressionable, so young, so trusting. You shouldn't have strayed and now! Now you'll be leaving all of us, and your little brothers too." No, crap how could she forget? Kevin, Malik! How would they survive without her? She tried to open her mouth, didn't know what she would say but she had to say something. They needed her and she couldn't leave them. Not like her mom and dad had left her to take care of them all on her own. Tears mixed with the grime on her face rolled down her cheeks to fall on the floor, mingling with her blood.

She managed to gasp her first syllable, "Wai-"

But Francis' foot crashed down on her back before she could get the word out, tearing a scream from her throat. She definitely felt that. The pain was agonizing, indescribable, and Seble was definitely sure she'd pass out but before she could Francis grabbed her by her hair and jerked her head upwards. _Oh god, _she thought, _why am I not dead yet?_

"Now, now my dear, don't ruin it by talking," His eyes had taken on a mad glint and spittle was flying from his lips which were now set in a fierce smile. "Pardon me but I do so love watching little human children die, the slower the better I always say, so do me a favor and just lie there quietly okay?"

His other hand travelled down her throat and to her collarbone, catching on her amulet. "My, what is this? Such a pretty trinket, I think I'll keep it as a souvenir." Just as he gripped it in his fist, Seble felt another scream tear out of her throat. Her eyes widened in desperation. No, under no circumstances should he take that! She needed it, it was hers, and it was her father's last memento. It was- something, incredibly important to her! Struggling weakly she could only watch helplessly as he tore the amulet from her throat.

She sobbed as her let her go, head thumping on the once white floor, feeling an unexplainable sense of loss. He tied it around his wrist, shouting triumphantly as he pumped his fist in the air.

"My, I simply thought it was pretty, but look! What a strange sensation it gives! Did you know Seble? I believe it is what you humans call magic, but to what purpose?" He returned to her, kneeling once again so that his face was more level with her own. "Is there something more special about you, my dear, than a moderately high IQ?" He ran his fingers through her hair, and this time Seble wanted nothing more than to turn away. All she could manage was another sob but all he did was laugh, raising his arm to better look at her amulet. She wanted it back, more than anything, and this crazy alien freak was going on talking about magic? Even now Francis was walking away from her, probably finally getting ready to leave assured as he was that the girl was definitely at death's door and the bomb would take care of any lingering evidence.

However, even as he turned his back to her something strange started to happen inside her. It began as a pulsating heat stemming from the wound in her chest which then spread to her extremities. Her teeth began to tingle, then ache almost painfully. Francis continued his little victory lap, taking his time leaving the destroyed lab, but Seble couldn't see him. In fact she couldn't see anything as red spots began to dance across her eyes, then finally coalescing into a solid red blanket robbing her completely of her sight.

With her sight gone, Seble felt like her hearing had become keener, as well as her other senses. She felt the hard marble of the floor pressing against her cheek, the slickness of the blood underneath her fingers, felt every rattling breath she took and the tiny shoots of pain that followed, she could hear the quite footsteps approaching her from the west side of the room.

Wait, footsteps?

And just as the thought left her, the owner of the footsteps threw something that whistled above Seble's head at Francis, which must have found its mark because the next thing she heard was the loud squelch of something sharp borrowing into soft flesh. Francis' screamed threatened to burst her ear drums. For someone who was so keen on dealing out pain, he sure couldn't take it very well. Next things she knew a second pair of footsteps came running towards her, even as the first continued their attack on the monster, judging from the small explosions, thumping and many curses she heard.

"Seble? Seble! Hey, hang in there, don't worry, you're going to be okay." Said the mystery male voice. Funny how he knew her name, and she was sure he sounded familiar but right now she didn't care who or even what he was. If he could help her, he could be the damned 'Swamp Thing' and she'd kiss him... Or maybe just shake his hand. Wincing in pain as he agitated her wounds and turned her around, she felt him inject her with something that mere seconds later made the pain around her chest deaden to a dull throb. Now that was some good stuff! A moment later strong arms lifted her up, giving her a feeling of vertigo as she still couldn't see. She felt safe for the first time that entire night but unfortunately the anesthetic did nothing to remove the ache in her bones and teeth. Even though the worst of the pain was gone, a sense of nausea had settled in her stomach and she was sure, definitely this time, she was going to throw-up.

She moaned and lolled her head to the side, dry heaving as she did so. The man gently set her back down on what felt like a bench as she finally managed to empty her stomach of what was mostly bile, seeing as she hadn't eaten much today. The man cooed soft words of comfort, gently brushing her hair back to avoid the worst of it, and once she was finished, he set her back into his arms and carted her off somewhere due west, where the two rescuers had first come from, at an even but fast pace.

She could hear the sound of fighting grow fainter and the choking dust get thinner, and soon she was out surrounded by the brisk September air. If her breathing wasn't so terrible right now she would have enjoyed the feeling more. The man took her further out and she realized that they were still inside the lab, just that the huge wall-to-ceiling windows had been smashed open. The sound of passing traffic reached her ears and she could feel a strong wind wiping her hair about her face. They stopped walking and after a few moments of just standing in there in front of the broken window and the very cold wind, Seble wondered, through her nausea and med-addled brain, whether the man intended to jump out of the window or do something equally ludicrous. It seemed like a silly thing to do but hey, to a girl who should by all medical accounts be dead already anyway, it just seemed like one of those things that could still happen today. Ooh, maybe they'd fly away on a spaceship, or Superman would come and whisk them away to safety! Yep, those meds? definitely some good stuff.

The man was growing impatient, if his rapid foot tapping was anything to go by. Ah, so he was waiting for someone. Someone who would come in through the window? She could only think of two instances where a person would use a window as an entrance: one, they were a fully equipped S.W.A.T team rappelling down from a helicopter, or two, Batman. This was Gotham, so the Dark Knight making an appearance at Wayne Tech wasn't a completely impossible idea and it just seemed like something Batman would do, right? Saving people who are being menaced by an alien and the like.

Sleep was starting to get harder to fight. The dull aches from before were wearing off and the major blood loss wasn't helping her keep awake much either. Just as she felt her head hit the solid chest of the man who was carrying her she heard a distant thrumming, but getting closer at a crazy speed. You would have thought it was a jet, except it was far too quiet to be one. Suddenly a rush of air buffeted her and if she was standing, and thankfully she wasn't, she would have been knocked clean off her feet. The man holding her amazingly stood his ground and after a few seconds more of relentless buffeting and a soft low pitch mechanical whirring, they moved towards it.

"Nightwing, I've brought the med-kit," a young voice spoke. "Do you still need it or is she..."

The voice tapered off. Hell no she wasn't dead! At least, not yet? And what's a 'Nightwing?' The man grunted and hefted her over a boundary, laying her down on soft upholstery. She felt him restrain her torso and legs gently with seat belts and then he was gone, a soft pneumatic 'woosh' sealing her inside the vehicle. She felt the enshrouding darkness more than she could actually see it and not being able to fight it any longer, she finally slipped into a deep sleep.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

Nightwing was, needless to say, very troubled by what he had just seen.

Placing Seble gently inside the Batmobile he shook his head as Robin offered him the med-kit again. It wasn't needed and this was part of the reason for his troubles. From what he knew about her, her background checks and the genome mapping mandated by Wayne Enterprises for all their employees at Wayne Tech, he hadn't even suspected that she had a hyper-regenerative ability. Granted, he had only looked into her files _today _but the checks were comprehensive and inclusive. If she had an ability of some sort he thought he would have picked up on it, seriously, it was right under his nose!

Regardless he was grudgingly glad for it; at least she wasn't going to die from that horrible chest wound. Once he was sure she was secure he stepped away, letting Robin return to the driver's seat and the door close.

"Be careful Robin. She's healing but is still in a delicate condition. Take her to the Batcave and ask Alfred to clean and dress her wound, if it's still there by the time you get there... Don't ask questions now, I have to get back to Batman," he hesitated, then decided to tell the kid to go home. Batman would just send him away right off without an explanation anyway. He put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't bother coming back for now, I think we have things under control but keep me updated on her condition."

Robin raised a skeptical eyebrow but nodded anyway, the dismissal obviously bothering him more than he let on. He turned towards the console on the dashboard and typed in a few commands. "Fine, ok I'll babysit. But I'm coming with you on your next mission; Batman never lets me tag along on any of the good ones anymore." He complained as the Batmobile revved ready to take off.

"Robin you need to go! I don't have time for idle chatter at the moment!"

"Fine whatever, I'm going. At least I can drive the Batmobile. That's sweet"

The window hissed up and in seconds they were speeding off over the city scape before Nightwing could retort. He took this as a cue to immediately run back to the action, hoping that his previous assessment still held true. As he neared the battle site he noticed the lack of noise. Had Batman won? Ducking behind a wall by the entrance to lab 2, he peeked into the room and sure enough the Dark Knight stood towering over the subdued alien.

Nightwing strode in, making both Batman and the alien look up as he entered. The thing was disgusting to look at to say the least and the damage it had wrought on his own, as well as the level of intelligence behind its actions, was disturbing. He hoped they'd finally get some answers now.

"Were you able to get it to talk?" He asked Batman.

Batman was typing something into his wrist communicator and didn't look up as he replied. "No, unfortunately all it seems to do now is growl and occasionally shoot out what looks to be minor laser beam from its mouth. An improvement from its earlier behavior, but unhelpful nonetheless."

"Can I try?"

"Be my guest. But be careful, we still don't know the full extent of his abilities."

Nightwing nodded and looked down at the extraterrestrial, a broad feral smile on his face. "So, ugly, why not make things easier on yourself? Tell us who you're working for, what your link to Lexcorp is and why you're doing this and _maybe _I won't turn you in to the Green Lantern corp," he crouched down in front of it. "And we both know what the Green Lanterns are doing to illegal aliens found on Earth lately."

The alien stopped its loud growling. Ha, maybe he scared it! Perhaps Nightwing had succeeded where Batman had failed? But then the creature started to giggle, rising in volume as it grew into a full blown hysterical fit.

"Oh, oh," he moaned. "How pathetic! The Green Lanterns? And what do you think those glorified space cops could ever do against Him? What harm could they bring to His will? Do you think that anyone of you could stand a chance against the terror that is coming for you? You are all hopeless!"

"Who's Him?"

"You will know it. You will know it boy, for it will be the last thing you'll hear before your death."

"Right, right, a threat from a trussed up alien with very few options left, color me terrified. Just, make it easier on yourself and answer my question."

"Ok, and how about you answer one of mine and we can do some quid pro quo, hmm? Tell me, how is my little Seble? Did she die as you carried her away? Did she die in your arms? Oh, how sweet she was, thinking she could get away right before-"

Nightwing struck it across the face, making the alien fall hard on its side. Yeah, it was baiting him, but the rage welling up inside him needed an outlet, and this piece of crap was asking for it.

"Now you listen to me you dragon-pig freak with wings!" Nightwing hissed as he grabbed the alien by the neck and drew him in. "I could do _whatever _I want to you and no one would say a god damn word for an animal like you." He liberated a hand to detach a bird-a-rang from his utility belt, which he held up to the creature's throat. "I can slit your throat open _right now_ and watch you take hours to die from the blood loss and you know what? I think my conscience is okay with that. So, how about you," he emphasized by jabbing the bird-a-rang in the alien's chest. "Quit goading me and tell me what I want to know and I," he gestured to himself. "Scrape up the last vestiges of my humanity and try so very hard to keep myself from using you as my own personal stress ball."

He hadn't known Seble that well, but Batman had been right, she was just a kid, two whole years younger than him, and this... thing was actually taking pride in what it did? He had spent quite a few evenings with her and the overtime staff over at lab 16, sometimes supervising projects or drinking coffee. At least that was before Wally's... disappearance. They had been a great bunch of people, albeit a little reclusive and socially awkward... and the fact that almost half of them had turned out to be traitors. And to top it all off she just had to be the one to find the alien in the labs on the same day she was fired from her post at Wayne Tech. Talk about bad luck.

Scowling at the pain radiating from his fist he stepped away, allowing a disappointed looking Batman to take the lead once again in the interrogation.

"I have a transcript of your telephone conversation with an unknown contact at Lexcorp, discussing classified Wayne tech technology, plus an inordinate amount of invoices ranging between $2.5-7 million passing between yourself and, again, Lexcorp. I know you've been impersonating the deceased Francis Patrick for the past 2 years,"Nightwing flinched almost imperceptibly. Deceased? Shit, what else had Batman not told him yet? "And that unlike the more simplistic Kroloteans or the power hungry Reach you have a much keener intellect and ability to mimic human characteristic both emotionally and physically, yet all I want to know from you today is why." That must have been the longest speech he had heard Batman speak to a prisoner of his ever. He usually kept to one word, maybe sometimes a sentence, of questioning. Unfortunately his speech fell on death ears, or perhaps fanatical ones would be a better description.

"He will come, and your pitiful human squabbles will be meaningless before him..." It was the only understandable sentence he could make out before the alien began babbling in an otherworldly tongue. He had a feeling they wouldn't be getting anything more out of this one.

He sighed and stood up, patting some dust off of his thighs as he did so. "We should contact Green Lan-" He began.

"Already on his way. We are wasting time here. We need to go and find this alien's human handler." Batman turned, already striding away.

"Yeah, no way this thing was able to infiltrate Wayne Tech all on its own." As Nightwing turned to follow suit, he noticed the sudden silence that had fallen over the room. Batman had stopped in front of him too, head turned just a fraction back towards him. He turned around facing the alien. It was sitting upright, body quivering softly with the omega symbol on his chest glowing a fierce white. What was it doing?

"Batman something's wrong here." Nightwing said. But even as he spoke the creature started to glowing a harsh bright light all over and a piercing shriek split the air. Nightwing groaned and covered his ears. Luckily his mask had blocked out the increased light intensity but his ears still suffered enough from the noise. It threatened to rupture his eardrums and he began backing away, disoriented by the confusion. He almost fell down on a piece of debris but Batman was quick to catch him and, turning him around, dragged him across the room, hurtling towards the blown in windows. As they reached the room were minutes earlier Nightwing was handing over Seble to Robin, Batman grabbed him by the waist and jumped out of the window, just as the alien cried out something unintelligible and a gigantic explosion obliterated the Wayne Tech building.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

The explosion had flung them both far from Wayne Tech but luckily neither was injured too badly. Nightwing groaned as he lifted a large piece of concrete from his leg. He coughed, finally noticing a motionless Batman lying face down beside him unmoving. After a brief moment of panic Nightwing checked his pulse. He sighed in relief as he found it, and satisfied that his mentor was alive and would continue to do so for the next 15 minutes, he checked his surroundings. They were in the building opposite Wayne Tech, the train station, which, thankfully, had survived the worst of the blast. He activated a tracking beacon built into his suit so that Green Lantern would be able to find them down here once he arrived. But that had been some explosion, and it was unlikely that the alien itself had survived it. He didn't know if he was glad or annoyed that his only lead was gone. He checked his suit; fortunately most of his more complex tech had survived the impact.

"Computer playback the last 5 minutes of audio." He spoke. His in built personal computer system picked up the command and replayed the recording. Static, the most of it, but he knew he had heard something at the end, just before the explosion. "Computer, block out all high frequency sound waves and locate and isolate the alien's voice by cross-referencing with past conversations."

It took a few tries more but finally Nightwing found what he was looking for. He frowned. Odd, the recording only added more questions to his growing list of 'what the hell was going ons?' He hoped Green Lantern would arrive soon, as the sooner he got back to the Batcave the sooner he could get to work figuring this out, and the sooner he did that the faster he could get back to Wally's case.

"What did you find?"

Nightwing, startled out of his thoughts, turned sharply at the direction of the sound but sighed in relief as he realized that it was only Batman. The Dark Knight stirred beside him and sat up, shaking his head as if disoriented. Nightwing helped him sit up and noticed his mentor was having trouble breathing.

"Are you okay Bruce?" He asked. Gently, he prodded his chest, pulling back as Batman winced when he found the broken rib.

The Dark Knight scowled at Nightwing's flagrant use of his civilian name and shrugged him off, extracting a hypodermic needle full of a cocktail of anesthetic and a little something extra from his utility belt which he immediately injected himself with. "_What did you find_?" He stressed every word, the pain allowing annoyance to leak into his voice, breaking his otherwise cool and unshakable demeanor. Nightwing sighed again. As usual, with this man work always came first.

"Why don't you hear for yourself?"

He played the recording. After a few minutes of pounding boots and labored breathing (from their escape) the alien's words came out as clear as crystal, high and hysterical.

_"For Darkseid!"_

A short silence followed, as the former dynamic duo deliberated the information that they had just found.

"The alien must have been some sort of fanatical suicide bomber, working for this Darkseid." Dick began the dialogue, trying to stand up. He thought he could hear someone shouting his and Batman's name. Good, luckily his leg wasn't broken. Sprained his ankle, but not broken.

"The explosion was obviously _it_, due to the extreme heat, light, noise and vibrational energy that it was giving off before the detonation." Batman continued. The voices were clearer now and they could both hear Hal Jordan's voice coming from the ceiling. Soon a green construct of an excavation digger pierced through the ceiling, clearing the surrounding rubble before Hal himself descended down towards them, crying out in triumph at having found them. Nightwing looked towards Batman who still sat looking straight ahead at the ruins of the now destroyed platform 7 of the Midtown train station.

"Then the priority now is this, find out who the hell this Darkseid is."

_**-0-0-0-0-0-**_

_Who is Darkseid indeed? Find out in the next chapter of Apocalypse! And herein is the chapters end, hope you all enjoyed it :)_


	5. Pride

Just to say, I did some research and I guessed that as Vlatavastok is said to neighbor Hungary then I could use the time difference between New York and Hungary to mark the time difference between Gotham and Vlatavastok so the events below are occurring simultaneously with the events at Gotham. I got confused a little sometimes while I was writing so I thought I should clarify just in case. We'll be back to the original story in the next chapter.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**Chapter 3: Pride**

**BIALYA**

**JULY 28, 10:00 AST**

_Queen Bee looked on her work with joy. She was happy- or at least content- with the way things were going and finally events were moving in a direction that pleased her. No more of that Reach nonsense, that plan had been doomed to fail from the start in her opinion. Their first partner had been far too theatrical, too keen, too fast! No wonder it all crashed down around them._

_Devastation continued to carry the podded children to the loading bay. Well, to call them children would be too much; they were more like young adults, adolescents on the brink of adulthood. It paid to distance oneself, to make a distinction, from the thought that one was kidnapping children, the idea of it never did sit well with her but one must do what needs to be done, and she was known to be a woman who always put her work first._

_"Devastation, dear, that is enough. You may leave me now." She dismissed the hired muscle, who left without a word. It made her smile, the way people deferred to her without question. Once she was gone Queen Bee picked up her very own Father Box from the bench she leaned on and called forth a boom tube. The ensuing booming sound to which the box was aptly named after heralded the opening of a portal, a direct link from Apocalypse to her beloved Bialya. She subconsciously found herself crossing her arms defensively in front of her; the only sign of weakness evident in her otherwise cool façade. Unfortunately, as useful as these beings from Apocalypse were, they did tend to scare her a little._

_Two beings stepped forward from the boom tube. One she knew, Dassad, a key advisor and inventor of Darkseid's, a grotesque, greyish looking man with an impressive skin deformation on the right side of his face. He walked with a limp and seemed to have an ever-present leery smile in place which served to unnerve whoever was watching. The second she did not. It was an impish man-thing of sorts, with a flat wide face harboring planar features. His eyes glowed a sinister red and his mouth, set in a permanent grimace, showed sharp pointed teeth. He was muscular yet squat, and seemed to possess just two toes on each foot. A shaggy shock of black hair covered his head and chin effectively completing his cavemen ensemble. _

_"Queen Bee, a pleasure I'm sure," Dassad rasped. "Excuse my companion. This is Kalibak, my Master's second-in-command, and he is not used to human presence. Well, not those that he could not play with at length."_

_He started laughing, short burst of a crackling sound that grated on the eardrums. How crass. The Kalibak, at least, did not bother speaking with her and started carting the pods through the boom tube using a trolley, taking six at a time. Queen Bee sighed. She so despised small talk when it wasn't needed. She hoped he would leave quickly but knowing Dassad he would continue torturing her with his endless chatter._

_"Dassad please, it is irrelevant," She gestured toward the pods, "These are the last few captives from the Reach ship, the ones with confirmed absences of the meta-gene." She informed him, Deasad nodded, watching with a pleased expression as Kalibak returned to cart off another six pods._

_"And our second arrangement?"_

_"You must understand that the previous meta-humans in our possession were liberated by the Justice League's team of child-heroes. We are now in the process of harvesting a new crop for your master."_

_"That is fine, excellent even. I impatiently await your results Queen Bee."_

_She smiled. Yes, this arrangement worked both ways. They were using them just as much as they were. The price one pays for power supposedly. As the last of the pods were transferred Desaad said his goodbyes and promptly left for the boom tube, closing it behind him as he did so. An oppressing quite descended over the cave which she was quite eager to dispel. Turning on her 3-inch teal blue heels she swept out of the room to return to the surface, to continue fanning the Quraci-Biyalian antagonism, to continue one of the many plans they were using to divert the Justice League's attention from their main goal._

_And ultimately, to serve the Light._

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**VLATAVASTOK**

**SEPTEMBER 3RD, 01:03 EET**

Wondergirl was definitely glad for the chance to prove herself to this team.

She sat in the Martian, sorry, Ms. Martian's bioship, wearing full stealth tech and equipment. She knew, she checked. Twice. She was leading alpha team, obviously for the first time and everything, and she needed it to all go absolutely perfect.

She readjusted her seatbelt for what was probably the 10th time and looked towards Barbara, no wrong, Batgirl. Geez, she really needed to get into the habit of using their codenames. Batgirl, Ms. Martian and Blue Beetle made up her alpha team. Not a bad pick but then again she didn't pick them, Batman had personally assigned them this mission, so it must be, like, really important as usually he left it to Nightwing or Aqualad to assign sub-teams, or would just let them get on with it on their own. He seemed a little impatient had taken Nightwing with him when he left leaving Aqualad in charge.

"ETA -20mins Wondergirl," Ms. Martian informed her. "We should go over the mission objective once more before we make the drop."

"I know that! I was getting to it," Wondergirl snapped. Ms. Martian looked startled by her tone, making Cassie feel guilty almost immediately after her retort. Cringing, she decided to apologize right away. "I'm sorry Ms. Martian, first day on the job and all, you know? I mean, not the first job, I've been on the team for a while now but I'm leader? First time. So I'm a little jumpy... sorry." She felt her face warm up. Geez, could she be a bigger dork? Batgirl chuckled, hiding it with a cough when Wondergirl shot a glare her way. Blue Beetle just looked very uncomfortable, deciding to stay out of it. Good for him.

"Let's start the briefing Cassie," Batgirl told her swiveling her chair around, "Running a little out of time here."

Wondergirl frowned. She always did this in the training scenarios. Undermining her authority and treating her like she didn't know what she was doing. "Right, Batman said that there is some suspicious technology being used in this city, which kind of look like this alien technology called a mother box, or derivatives thereof, as well a crazy increase in kidnapped people, and after the Reach invasion, we are obligated to investigate when the number of missing people increases above a certain percentage. He thinks there's been 'deliveries' being sent to Earth and vice versa and we are to locate, infiltrate and observe the locations marked on the map. A recon mission more or less so no contact with any unfriendlies." She finished. Totally nailed it.

"We also need to split into pairs so as to better cover a wider range. We should check all abandoned or condemned buildings, underground bunkers, and even Count's Vertigo residency for signs of alien tech. He may just be our primary target on this one. If there is even the _slightest _chance that that the Light is still working with the Reach we need to know, sooner rather than later" Batgirl said as she typed in a few commands into her in-built wrist computer, causing a holographic map of Vlatavastok to appear in front of the three of them with 2 bright red spots, one over the forest bordering the city, and another over the warehouse district

God damn it she was totally going to say that! WonderGirl huffed and undid her seatbelt, pouting, and stood up. She moved to the center of the room and avoided Ms. Martian's concerned gaze. Fine, if _Batgirl _wanted to be team leader so bad that she was okay with making her look totally incompetent, then she can have it! She'll just do her work and get back to WonderWoman. At least she respected her as an equal.

"Ms. Martian get ready to drop, I'm going in first," Wondergirl said as she fidgeted with her bracelets. She heard Blue Beetle sigh and stand up, moving towards her until he stood right behind her.

"Calm down a little Wondergirl, Barbara is just trying to help, not make you look stupid, you know that? Like you said, it's your first time being leader and it's a big responsibility. Please don't take it to heart, we all need to be on top of our game, it's our first mission since Wa- since the Reach clean up and we all want to make this go smoothly, right?"

"….."

"Um, Wondergirl, right?"

"Right okay, right," she knew that geez. It was this whole leader thing, it made her irrational and paranoid. She shifted slightly so that she was a few centimeters further away from him. Blue Beetle made her uncomfortable sometimes, what with his preachy do-gooder attitude.

Ms. Martian signaled her. "Wondergirl, we've reached. Dropping in 3,2,1..."

The hangar dropped open, sending Wondergirl and Blue Beetle plummeting 20feet before they used their power of flight to stop. She surveyed her surroundings. They were over the forest bordering the city of Vlatavastok, their first stop on this alien hunt. Above them the bioship closed the hangar door and, still camouflaged, sped off north to the second drop-zone. Good, at least Batgirl couldn't tell her what to do from all the way over there!

"Wondergirl. Blue Beetle, remember to keep radio contact to a minimum, the intelligence agencies of Vlatava are known to tap into private frequencies and we have confirmation that Psymon was seen in Vlatavastok just this morning so generating a mind link is a no-go." Ms. Martian informed them.

"Alright, roger that Ms. Martian, see ya." Wondergirl replied.

"We'll rendezvous back at this location once we finish scouting the second site. Be careful Blue, Wondergirl." And with that she was gone, even as Wondergirl turned off her own com-link and turned towards Blue.

"Wondergirl, this way. The scarab is picking up a weird signal it doesn't like from this direction," Blue Beetle pointed towards the eastern side of the forest. Wondergirl stood hovering in place. From what Blue had told them before, the scarab didn't like a type of technology from the place who were... the enemy of... what was it, the enemy of those New Genesis people that Superboy was buddies with? Then this could be an Intergang thing! Smiling savagely she took off in the direction Blue was pointing at. This was awesome, first day and she'd take down Intergang! Batman would probably give her a medal or something seeing as how important this mission looked to be to him. She weaved through a copse of trees, blocking out Blue as she closed the distance to... where? Realizing that she had no idea where she was going, and blushing slightly, she stopped, with Blue Beetle almost crashing into her.

"What the hell Wondergirl?! Do you even know where you're going?" He whispered harshly.

Putting on her most innocent face, Wondergirl replied, "No, not really? Argh, I'm sorry Blue I got… excited. Wanna take the lead now?" She mocked bowed and gestured with a flourish to the general direction they had been going in.

Blue Beetle, ignoring her completely, landed then looked up waiting for her to follow suit. Groaning, Wondergirl grudgingly dropped to the ground. She wanted to fly, everything happened faster and more exciting when she flew.

"We need to be quite, that's kind of what stealth means, so stop 'swooshing' through the trees and snapping off branches, cuz it's not helping any! We go by foot and scan and survey the area before barging in and letting everyone and their grandma's know that we're here." Great now Blue Beetle was telling her off too. But, maybe she did deserve this one a little. She was guilty of sometimes letting a little too much bloodlust take control of her actions and that wouldn't do for her very first time as team leader. Perfect, remember? So she nodded and followed Blue Beetle who continued to move east, changing his course slightly when his scarabs alerted him to.

Soon the dense trees gave way to a very large artificial clearing, signaling that they'd reached the base. She knew it was a base because of the crazy tripped out alarm systems that Blue's scarab picked up, useful this one. He signaled her to stop, pointing out where the motion detectors, laser grid generators and good old fashioned mines were. Beyond that was nothing but an expanse of grass, but Wondergirl picked up a light shimmering that betrayed their camouflage. Long hours of training with Ms. Martian had finally paid off then! She smirked; it felt good to be able to use her training in a real mission scenario, and not be the last one to know anything like she sometimes felt she was

Wondergirl turned her com-link on, a static buzzing filling her ears indicating that neither Ms. Martian nor Batgirl were available. Great, so no reporting in what they found to the rest of the team. She called the Watch Tower instead, instantly connecting to Aqualad who was on monitor duty for the team today. Great, again, Aqualad! She seriously didn't know how to feel about the guy.

"Aqualad, we've reached the first site and have come across a camouflaged compound of sorts. Shall we proceed in?" She whispered. There was a short pause while he deliberated then his cool voice finally resounded through the com-link.

"Proceed, but be cautious. There are too many unknown variables. Pull out at the very first _hint _of trouble and check in once you get out."

"Alright, roger that."

She turned it off and leaned close to Blue's ear and whispered, failing to notice as he flinched away. "We need to find the entrance Blue, without alerting them. Any ideas?"

"I could create a distraction? Use a sonic blast on the building which should take out their camo too. That would let you get inside. I'll draw their fire and lead them away, lose them in the forest hopefully and circle back to give you back-up if you need it."

"Okay, good plan. Let's do that."

"Ready when you are."

Blue Beetle started to circle the compound, but just as he was a couple of trees away from her, the harsh hissing sound of pneumatic doors sliding open filled their ears, followed by flashing red lights from beacons hidden in the trees canopy signaling the deactivation of the alarm system. Blue Beetle grabbed her arm, pulling her behind a tree just as the compound's doors fully opened letting a large 4X4 green camo colored jeep out. Seeing their chance the two dove into the compound's perimeter. There were no guards stationed outside, and good for them, because the two young heroes were able to enter the main building uncontested. Mission, part 1, total success.

Wondergirl scanned the room as the doors hissed shut behind them. The inside of the building was large, larger than it had seemed on the outside. They had ducked behind a bunch of large steel grey crates and adding to the bad lighting in this place, they were basically all but hidden from view. But, it wasn't like there was anyone there for them to hide from. The place was completely empty, with only a crazy load of crates, strange looking machinery, a large table and a couple of chairs occupying the space. She was so disappointed. She needed something, anything, to bring back to the Tower to commemorate her first mission as leader…

There! Movement!

"Wondergirl, what are- wait up!" Blue beetle scrambled to catch up to her as she quickly (but stealthily) made her way to it. Yes, maybe it was a little risky to just up and go but she couldn't just let it get away. Ducking behind crates and slowly making her way to where she had seen the movement she arrived. She muffled a shriek behind her hand. Blue Beetle, also reaching her side, cursed like a sailor in Spanish at the sight in front of him, backing away rapidly.

The creature was in a man sized cage partially covered by a large tarp, which was why she hadn't spotted it the first time. It was a tall creature, with green skin covered in what looked like gold plated armor. There was a reptilian nature to it and the place where his mouth should have been was sealed by a large metal gag. His hands and feet were also bound. Wondergirl grimaced, the things eyes were following her around, beady red points tracking her every move.

"Wondergirl we need to move, now! That thing is Apocalypton and it's bad. We have to report this to the Watch Tower." Blue Beetles voice had taken a panicked edge, and he was tugging on her arm, but she couldn't tear her eyes from it. What was Apocalypton anyway? Didn't sound like anything that they had dealt with before… Just as she started to concede and leave with him she noticed the thing was glowing and vibrating. Weird, so weird and why was Blue freaking out so much? This time Blue Beetle didn't even bother trying talking to her, he pulled hard on her arm and forced her to leave with him, jerking her to a rapid pace. Even as they started running a harsh light penetrated the semi-darkness around them growing with each step they took. The creature was shrieking, loud and high pitched, and Wondergirl wondered how it had managed to remove that steel gag from its mouth? Suddenly Blue pushed her in front of him, telling her to fly, and she tried but couldn't? Even as she wondered how that was even possible the creature let out a single piercing battle cry, and in English no less.

"For Darkseid!" It shrieked and then blew up.

The ensuing explosion took her by surprise, but not Blue. Even as she felt the heat from the blast on her back she felt his arms encircle her saving her from the worst of the flames. The concussion from the blast drove them both through the compound's walls knocking the breath out of her as she felt multiple ribs break. By the time they landed they had crashed into several trees and lay in a heap on the forest floor. Broken bones, everywhere. She couldn't feel anything, which terrified her. No pain, just a numbness that had spread all over her body, until she could barely feel the rise and fall of her chest. She tried lifting her head to find Blue, but found that she couldn't even do that. Great, just great and now she felt like crying. She shouldn't be so badly injured, her durability usually covered concussive force from an explosion, but… she was bleeding, badly, and at this rate she might actually die. She was dizzy, the blood loss and the smoke from the destroyed compound making her light headed, but she tried to force herself through sheer will to get up and find Blue. If she was that bad off, she was scared to even think of how badly injured he would be.

_Get up, get up, GET UP! _Yes, finally. She felt her head rise, slowly and shaking. Damn it, her vision was tunneling, she could barely make out anything there was so much fire and smoke everywhere. No, there he was, lying underneath one of the pines with his suit turned off and, oh god, his body. It was covered in burns and lacerations oozing blood. She chocked. She had to get to him, she didn't know how fast the scarab thing would heal him, or even why it had deactivated, and he needed help now. She cried out as her sudden movement jarred her broken collarbone causing her to drop her head down to the forest floor. Hopeless, it was all hopeless. She could only watch helplessly as her vision continued to black out and Blue grew fainter and fainter. The others would find them, hopefully before whoever owned the compound did, they just had to hold out. She didn't want to die, not for some silly mistake, not with Blues life hanging over her head.

"_C-c—Cassie! Wondergirl respond! What's your status? Wondergirl, Blue Beetle RESPOND!"_

Ah, there they were, speak of the devil. Batgirl's voice was so reassuring right now; she barely remembered why she was pissed off at her in the first place. Wondergrl smiled as her eyes drifted close. They'll come, now that she knew that she felt the panic subside, so she finally allowed herself to fall into unconsciousness.


	6. Reality

**A/N: Four months, really I have no words please excuse me. So ashamed! I blame exams and the dissertation deadline but anyway, that's all done, so I'm back! Hopefully next update will be next Tuesday (but maybe Monday depending on how fast I type it). Thanks for your patience and here it is!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Reality**

**THE BATCAVE**

**SEPTEMBER 03, 22:00 EST**

Today wasn't his day Robin thought as he watched the sleeping girl breath. He watched her chest rise and fall, air softly whispering through slightly parted lips. He glanced up at the digital read out every now and again, noting her steady heart rate and blood pressure, then always looking back down at the still form. It was amazing really, her survival that is. The amount of blood on her shirt suggested a life-threatening wound but when Alfred lifted it there was only a large puckered scar to mark the flesh. She was pale and weak but thankfully alive. Her bloodied clothes had been removed (he looked away of course) and replaced by a sterile, standard hospital gown and the med-pods clima-control function made sure she was always comfortable. The IV gave her a nutritious supply of everything she needed and she was still connected to a blood bag but despite all that (and the initial miraculous healing of that terrible chest wound) there had since then been no improvement in her condition.

He frowned, deep in thought. So deep in fact the he almost didn't notice the heart monitor start beating frantically, or the girl start bucking and convulsing wildly in an obvious seizure.

Robin jumped out of his chair, opening the pod's domed casing and, struggling to get her on her side, called for a flustered Alfred to help him calm her down. Alfred injected the struggling girl with a small dose of Valium and the effects were immediate. She slowly stopped convulsing, her shallow breathing deepening and finally relieved she'd be okay, he depressed the pod's casing and increased the oxygen levels.

He ran a hand through his hair and let out a puff of air. "That was close." He breathed.

Alfred rolled up his sleeves, tutting, "if I may be so bold Master Tim, this poor girl requires _actual _medical attention from a _proper _doctor, not the minimum we can provide here. We ought to have sent her over to a hospital the moment she was stable."

Robin chuckled nervously, he really couldn't have agreed more, "Dick said to bring her here Alfred, but you're right. If she gets any worse I'm taking her over myself, hell with the consequences. This is just… _way_ out of the usual stuff I handle." Sitting down he put his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. His head pounded. Yeah sure earlier he had been pouting over not getting to go on the mission at Wayne Tech with Batman and Nightwing, but realized now that taking care of an injured person was maybe just as hard and by far a much bigger responsibility than taking down a criminal.

Alfred went about cleaning up the disposed syringe and emptied bottle of Valium, throwing them in a medical-waste bin. Robin watched him listlessly, then went back to staring at his charge.

Alfred moved over to the med-pod once again, decreasing the oxygen levels now that the girl's vitals had returned to normal. At the same time the main monitor flashed twice, signalling a transmission from the watchtower. Robin jumped to respond, eager for a distraction, but just as he did there was the muffled sound of a fuse blowing and the lights, computers and all electrical equipment in the cave went out, throwing them into darkness, followed by a resounding crack spreading throughout the room simultaneously, freezing him in place, half turned towards the monitor. His mask immediately compensated for the lack of light and illuminated the cave with night vision. Turning around he first noticed the sound of a viscous liquid hitting the stone floor then heard a choked gurgling sound and in the half second it took for him to find the source of the noise, he was again shocked to a stand-still.

Eyes wide, he saw Alfred hang off the end of a hand, clawed fingers digging so deep into his neck an alarming amount of blood flowed steadily from the wound down to the floor. He twitched but seemed unable to move otherwise. The arm was connected to the girl from the med-pod. Funnily enough, the first thought to cross Robin's mind was how inhumanly strong she must be to break through that reinforced glass, but whatever was presently in the pod was far from being human.

The creature was humanoid in shape but had glowing blood red eyes set in a feathered face with black and white plumage. Razor-sharp teeth were set in a wide malicious snarl, and a deep rumbling sound emanated from her throat. Her previous mess of soft black curls were replaced by long black and white feathers and what appeared to be electricity crackled around her entire body. Robin wanted to move, do something, save Alfred! But he couldn't. He was frozen in place unable to do more than twitch much like the butler. He felt sweat dripping off his forehead and falling into his eyes as he gasped. A deep, pervading, primal fear, made worse by the lack of light, had settled unto him, like that felt by prey hunted by a larger and very hungry predator

She suddenly jerked forward, body crashing into the pod's glass casing and shattering it into a bigger hole for her to get through. Robin gave a weak cry as she lowered her head to Alfred's neck, tearing at his skin with her sharp teeth and lapping up the blood spurting forth from the deep gash. Robin was forced to watch in horror as the girl he had been tending to just minutes ago went about killing the old man. The slurping sounds she made as she drained him of his blood would long stay in his nightmares. Unceremoniously she dropped the spent body to the floor, slamming against the stone floor. Red eyes turned towards him and he knew he had seconds, if any, to think of a way to free himself from whatever held him prisoner. Her movements more fluid, she slipped out of the pod, her bare feet crushing the glass shards. Long pointed talons gouged the stone and noticing the direction of his gaze she smirked, threw her head back, and let out an ear-piercing wail. Robin braced himself as the she vaulted towards him, electricity crackling from her extended clawed hand. He narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth, today really wasn't his day.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**THE WATCHTOWER**

**SEPTEMBER 24, 12:00 EST**

Kaldur'am stared at the monitor screen. So much had gone wrong so fast in the short time since he'd been given back the mantle of leader by Nightwing, and it felt almost impossible to keep up. Cassie, Jaime and now Tim… too many of his friends had fallen already to this new threat and he feared, how many more-

Angrily he shook his head then planted his hands firmly on the console, letting his head droop. He wouldn't think like that. He couldn't. He remembered how such thoughts had led to that darkness to grow inside him. They will be fine, there could be no doubt to that.

He sighed and rose to his full height, rolling his shoulders. Opening his clear aqua-marine eyes he settled on the monitor again, or more on the texts there. The report Dick had sent him a fortnight ago still disturbed him, no matter how many times he read it. Covert alien infiltration, exploding extra-terrestrials and a blood-sucking vampire… mutant? Had they not just survived a Reach invasion, he would have been more sceptical. Typical that this insanity should start just as he regained his position as team leader.

Deep in his thoughts he did not notice when Batgirl entered the room. She was returning after visiting Cassie in the Psyche room. She yawned loudly, stretching her cramped limbs, startling him. She smiled thinly and joined him, smile dropping when an accidental glance prompted her to read Nightwing's report on the screen.

"This again? Aqualad, what's the point we've all read this over and over. Nothing new is going to come out of it." She said, exasperated. Kaldur'am lifted an eyebrow. He had noticed the week prior how quick to anger she had become. She seemed to take Cassie's current condition as a personal failure. He really couldn't understand the need for the Bat-family to hold themselves responsible for everything that went wrong, and then adopting a foul mood until the issue was resolved…

He returned his gaze to the screen. Well, if she wanted to act like that it was her choice, but he would not encourage it. He decided to keep quiet; at times silence said a thousand words.

However, she was unfazed. "Aqualad, Aqualad? Kaldur!" She snapped, slamming her hand down hard on the console. He slowly moved his gaze towards her, noting her obvious annoyance and hostile demeanour. He closed his eyes, equally annoyed but to anyone watching he was the image of tranquillity. Fine, he would humour her a while.

"I understand Barbara- and there is no need to shout I can hear you- but this is the only lead we have so far. Batman and Nightwing have found nothing more with their connections at Wayne Enterprises and the other Leaguers are busy trying to fathom what Vandel Savage and the Light are up to with the War World, so I am afraid that this particular issue is our to deal with alone," he raised his hand and let it drift to the screen, distorting the tactile hologram absent-mindedly. Batgirl's eyes narrowed in frustration, then her face suddenly softened and she smiled again, though more heartfelt this time.

"I'm sorry Aqualad. I know I'm… touchy at the moment." She ran her hand over her face. "But it's just… it's been weeks and still we have nothing?! Usually we'd have at least a lead or a suspect but this time we have pretty much _nothing_ but a weak connection to Lex Luthor and Lex Corp. I just wish- I just wish I had someone to _viciously_ interrogate about Cassie's and Jaime's condition."

Though slightly alarmed by the venom in her voice and how wildly she was shaking her hands in a strangling motion as she spoke, still Kaldur'am gave her a pitying look. He had no doubt as to how physically and emotionally fatigued the girl as. The mask hid the bags sitting by Cassie's and Jaime's side for the week they stayed in the coma had incurred, and her suits reinforced skeletal support almost hid the fine tremors wracking her body, almost.

All forgiven almost immediately, he placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "I have taken no offence, but you should go rest. You are far too tired to aid me or anyone else at this time."

"Alright, but call me if anything comes up." She said as she left waving goodbye. Her heeled boots clicked as she walked away from him, until he was alone once again. He watched her go and realised how much he had enjoyed her company, despite her previous difficult attitude. Batgirl was one of the few people who still treated him like a friend instead in that careful, hesitant way most of the others were, as if unsure on how to act with him now that he was back.

"Move slowpoke! I've got a full day of zombie killing planned ahead and you're not going to stop me!"

"Whatever dude I've got dibbs on the TV and I'm watching Gangsters vs. Aliens."

"W-ell, not if I get the remote first."

"Dude, not cool!"

A blast of air preceded the speedster's entrance into the comm room who seated himself on the couch, remote and controller in hand as he switched to the right input. Soon the sound of gunfire and snarling zombies filled the room, broken now and again by the sound of Bart whooping and shouting "Kill 'em!"

BeastBoy closely followed in the form of a cheetah, yowling in dismay seeing Bart with control of the TV. He morphed back to his half-human half-monkey shape, skin green with a long prehensile tail swinging behind him. He pouted at the scene then, catching sight of Kaldur'am, waved towards the Atlantean hesitantly and made his way to the couch, giving up the struggle and deciding to play with his friend instead.

"Dude, I wanna play too."

"Pssht, whataver man. You said you didn't want to first, so stick with your decision. Bam, headshot!"

"Come on dude, be cool!"

"No, also, you suck. And- Hey Megan didn't know you were back from Mars already."

BeastBoy whipped his head around with a wide grin on his face, expecting to see his blood sister. Instead Bart took the chance to knock him off his seat. Chuckling maliciously he lay down on the couch so he was taking up most of the space and a sullen BeastBoy glared up at him.

"Not cool dude, I'm totally getting you back for this."

Their bickering brought a soft chuckle from Kaldur'am's lips. It was moments like this that broke the tension-filled atmosphere at the Watchtower. He closed the screen window and started to head to the training room. Working out at times helped put his mind in order, and by Neptune, he needed it now.

Unfortunately, it was in that instant that the alarm started blaring. The entire room was suffused with a red, blinking light and an animatronic voice came over the intercom.

"Attention, attention! Intruder detected in Sector 12. All personal to Sector 12 immediately. Repeat, attention, attention!.."

The sound of the game had stopped and the two young boys stood up immediately, Bart lowering his goggles and jetting off to Sector 12 with his super-speed. BeastBoy glanced his way once then morphed into a falcon, flying to the disturbance at high speed. Kaldur'am quickly followed disturbed as he left the comm room by the sound of the explosions reaching him.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

A high pitched screeching sound stirred Seble from her sleep. She groaned and tossed not wanting to be roused from her sleep. She felt so good right now, like she was disjointed from her body but still vaguely aware of her surroundings. But the sound wouldn't stop. Grudgingly she cracked open an eye. She closed them almost immediately (the light was too bright!) but forced them open again. Blinking a few times she saw a room that was unrecognisable to her. It was white, very white, and artificially lighted by a single strip of halogen lighting. She tried to sit up, but hissed in pain as she met resistance at her arms preventing her from moving. She was shackled! A surge of panic flared in her heart. She tested her bonds again. The shackles looked to be of the old fashion variety, metallic rings joined together leading to a band on either end, one connected to each of her hands and the other to the bed. Her legs were similarly restrained. Closing her eyes she tried to calm her wildly beating heart. Looking around the room once more she saw that there was sparse furniture there, one door and no windows. And that annoying sound still continued, though she now noticed that it was outside the room where, from the small glass square set in the door, she could see a flashing red light as well. She bit her lip anxiously. Whatever was happening outside couldn't be good but it's not like she could do anything about it, she couldn't leave even if she wanted to! Instead she could only lay there; hoping whoever had put her here would at least come by to give her an explanation.

She knew it was a waste of time but she couldn't help trying to get free from the shackles. She pulled on them fruitlessly and screamed in frustration as her efforts were met with failure, again. She seriously had no idea why anyone would do this, or why she was in this unknown place in the first place.

She froze mid-struggle as she heard heavy, lumbering steps followed by a bone rattling roar, draining the blood from her face. She forgot her chains and tried to sit up again and in her fear, she started to panic, causing blood to start dripping from the new wounds cut into her skin by the shackles. Another roar and this time closer. Seble could only watch as a huge shadow blotted out the red light coming from outside her room. She could here its wet breathing and then a set of five long claws punctured the metal door, making Seble jump and shriek in terror.

_Please, damn it, I need to get out of these chains!_

And just like that there was a click and the shackles fell off her wrists and ankles. Seble stared at her hands in amazement, not knowing how it was possible. Maybe she had loosened it somehow, or it was really old and rusted? No matter how she was grateful she was finally free. She scrambled off the bed just as the monster threw the door crashing into it. She fell to the ground shielding her head against any falling debris. She dared to look up seeing the monster fully for the first time.

It was very tall, very bulky and very purple and these were the only non-scary features she could see. The thing was huge with three eyes and a fish-like fin growing on top of his head. He stood hunched forward, his huge frame obviously too big to be supported by his skeletal system. He was shirtless (now obvious to her he was male) and his skin seemed 'ripped' in places, showing knotted muscle tissue underneath. Ropes of saliva dripped from his mouth. Seble sniffled, not realising she had been crying. Wiping the tears from her eyes she cries out as the monster continues to move towards her. The creature increased his speed and slashed towards her. Seble raised her arm in a weak attempt to defend herself but found her hand covered in a crackling light. Staring in wonder she moved her hand away from her face and that one gesture created an arc of white light, so bright the after-image burned behind her eye-lids as she closed her eyes from it. The monster didn't seem to like the light at all and with another deafening roar threw itself at her. This time Seble screamed as loud as she could burying her head in her hands despite the crackling aura on it.

But the monsters movements were stopped. Haltingly Seble lifted her head from her hands and saw that a band of wait-water? The water encircled his torso and was trying to yank it back. Braver, Seble lifted her head further. There was a distant grunt and the monster was completely thrown outside. Seble scrambled up unto her knees and finally got up. This was insane. Just where was she?

Pure curiosity drove her to look outside her tiny sterile room. Stepping over the overturned stool and careful of the metallic fragments littering the floor she looked passed the threshold, looking into a wide, long corridor. The monster was being assaulted on three sides, by a tall dark-skinned blonde man wielding swords made of water, a… blur of sorts and a green gorilla?! Seble's hands flew to her mouth at the scene in front of her. The gorilla pounded his chest then attacked the monster, striking it twice across his face and throwing him into the path of the blur who tripped him making him fall hard unto the floor. The blonde man took this chance to encircle the monster's face with a ball of water, effectively cutting off his air. This only made the monster angrier and using his powerful arms he managed to grab to blur (turning out to be a boy) and threw him into the blonde man. They both crashed into the opposite wall. The gorilla screamed in anger and charged the monster but just before they crashed the gorilla changed into an anaconda, entwining itself around the monster's neck and squeezing hard. The monster struggled hard, throwing himself into the wall to loosen the snakes hold.

Seble's mouth dropped open. The ape changed into a snake. Not believing what she was seeing anymore she tried to find a way out of there and her eyes fell on a still form laying a few metres away from her. Although still afraid she managed to inch her way towards it, rushing towards it once she was close enough. Kneeling next to it, she noticed that the figure was a girl with red hair. Batgirl? Being a Gothamite she wasn't a stranger to the Batlogo. Batgirl was pretty beat up but, checking her pulse, thankfully alive. Seble sighed in relief and turned the girl to her side, laying her gently on the ground. A loud crash and a blast of air ruffling her hair forced Seble to look towards the fighting once again. It seemed that the monster had the upper hand once more, and the three guys (now reduced to two) were having a hard time holding him off.

"Aquald!" One of them shouted, the blur-boy, from his place lying on the ground. "You think back-up is coming anytime soon? 'cuz I'm feeling pretty moded right now."

The man being addressed as Aqualad (blondie) didn't seem able to reply as he dodged a particularly vicious blow to his head, arm tattoos glowing a bright blue colour as his water-swords transformed into maces and he swung his right arm upwards hoping to crush the monster's elbow, but the blow deflected against his skin like it was nothing. The snake was now a green rhino and it charged the monster horn first, for the first time actually managing to push him back.

BatGirl stirred and Seble immediately helped her sit up. The girl couldn't even open her eyes but she seemed to want to say something so Seble lowered her head closer to the girl's lips.

"You ne- you need." She started then broke off. Seble was afraid the BatGirl had a concussion or something.

"What, what do they need?" She asked.

"The air-lock… open it."

Seble froze. Air-lock, like in a space ship? Seeing what she had been through already, why not. Another loud crash startled her into action.

"Where's the hangar then."

Batgirl's lips twitched upwards in a smirk. "Need to… lead it to Sub-Sector 6."

"Alright, Sub-Sector 6 got it. Don't worry you're going to be fine."

"Not me… I'm worried… about, hurry."

She helped her lie down again then let a harsh breath out. Every nerve in her body wanted her to go find a safe place to hide and let these obviously better equipped people fight the monster, but the tiny logical part of her brain knew that there was no safety without getting rid of that monster and, deeply hating that stupid logical part of her, she braced herself and stood up searching for someone to convey the message to.

All bar one of the boys were strewn across the floor, unconscious. Seble cringed as the last man standing, Aqualad, was struck across the back hard, forcing him to cry out as he crumpled to the floor. Seeing as he was the closest one to her at the moment she ran to him then crouched down turning him over. His eyes were open but were rolling in their sockets. He was in obvious pain, a blow to the spine wasn't something the average person could walk away from, and in some places the skin had split open revealing bloody wounds. Careful not to agitate them too much, Seble desperately clutched at his face with both hands, slapping him lightly to help him focus. There would be time to feel guilty about this later but for now, they all needed to find a way to get rid of this monster. The man stirred and his eyes focused, starring directly at her. An alarmed looked flitted across his face but was quickly hidden as he grabbed her hand and pulled them away from his face. The monster had moved towards one of the other unconscious boys, but was slow progress; thankfully one of his legs seemed to be hurt in some way. Aqualad vaulted up, landing on his feet in a curled position, tattoos glowing blue again. He picked up his swords, now just hilts lying on the ground that were swiftly filled with water, moulding into back into swords.

"Stand back," he rasped, glancing at her briefly then taking a defensive stance. He started shouting, desperate to take the monster's attention away from the unconscious boys. "Despero! We are not yet done!"

The monster, Despero, turned at the sound of his name and roared, rushing as fast as he could towards Aqualad making the whole floor quake. Aqualad met him halfway, swords clashing against the brute's arms again trying to push him back.

"Ah wait!" Seble remembered Batgirl's message but the man was already in the middle of a vicious battle. She lurched to her feet, wary of the swinging arms and the slashing water swords. She shrieked as Despero was thrown just inches away from where she was standing.

"Leave, you are not safe here. Move to the comm rooms it is only a few doors down from here," Aqualad gestured to a hallway opening to her left. "Go, no-"

"No, seriously listen!" She shouted. There was nothing she wanted to do more than run away and hide but she said she'd deliver the message and by god she was delivering it. "I have a message from Batgirl. She said you needed to open the air-lock ahhh!"

Seble ducked as the monster reached for her, rushing over to Aqualad's side for some measure of protection. One of the boys on the ground stirred and was getting up. It was good, hopefully they'd have a better chance at fending off the guy.

Aqualad turned towards her, cool blue eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Did she say anything else."

"No, just to open it… Hey are we in space?"

He ignored her question and instead returned to the fight, watching as the animorphing boy grew into a gorilla again and held Despero in a bear hug. "We need to lead him there but it will be fraught with difficulty. Girl, how well can you use your abilities?" He asked.

Seble was confused. "What abilities?"

Aqualad gave her an irritated glare. "This is not the time for playing innocent! To what extent can you control your transformation, hurry! BeastBoy cannot hold off Despero for much longer."

"Seriously man I have no idea? Wait, my hand did a weird glow earlier, but I've never done that before… sorry…"

He cursed in a strange language then, with a wild yell, he threw himself back into the fight, aiding BeastBoy. Seble felt like she had disappointed the guy but she really had no idea what he was talking about, and his attitude towards her seemed a bit weird. But so what if she couldn't help him in that way, there was still something else she could do.

There was a map near her luckily, and from that she could see one air-lock was indeed located at Sub-Sector 6, so down to the end of this sector, down the stairs and second door to the right? Trying her hardest to remember the route by heart she pushed herself from the wall, going down to the end of the hallway and started to wave her arms about her head like a maniac.

"Hey, hey Despero! Over here you big radioactive fish head! Yeah I'm talking to you!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. It worked as the monster turned towards her and seeing his prey, he instantly gave chase. So her hunch was right, the monster really was after her. "Catch me if you can!"

As soon as she was sure he was following her she turned on her heels and ran, down to the end of the sector and took the stairs two at a time. She heard the monster crashing into the walls behind her. Already she could feel herself tiring, but she forced herself to keep going. Forcing the door open she lost precious seconds allowing Despero to almost catch up with her. She stumbled as the monster crashed into the stairway opening but caught herself and kept running. She only had a bit more to go until she was at the air-lock and then, if things went as she thought it would, they'd all be safe.

She heard Aqualad shouting orders at someone and the yowling of a large feline come from behind her, but she ignored it all and kept running. Finally, panting she skidded to a halt in front of the entrance to the air-lock room (hangar 1) and rushed inside. Despero followed at her heels but was preoccupied by a little green humming bird buzzing around his face. Aqualad ran in, eyes not leaving Despero, but looking, if possible, even angrier than he had been earlier at her.

"What are you doing! I specifically told you to get to safety, this is the complete opposite of that!" He hissed through clenched teeth.

"You said you needed a distraction. Meet," she pointed to herself. "Your distraction. Now you just need to get the air-lock open." She explained. Aqualad's eyes were still narrowed in anger but he nodded his assent. Despero mindlessly swatted at the hummingbird which was little by little driving it closer to the air-lock door, which Aqualad had managed to open. The monster flailed and stumbled, harassed by the tiny thing. Aqualad ran forward and dived low sweeping Despero's legs from under him. He fell head first into the air-lock and the shape-shifter quickly morphed into a gibbon and thumped the release button, closing the door on their side and opening the doorway to the outside. For the third time that day Seble's mouth dropped open. They were in space! Actually in space! Despero was sucked out due to the pressure change, poor sucker didn't even try to resist, and was thrown into the darkness, turning end over end as he spiralled away. Seble thought it was a horrible way to die but seeing as the monster wanted to kill them all- her especially- she didn't feel too bad about it. Very quickly he was out of sight and she breathed a sigh of relief. Turning around she leant against the wall and massaged her temples. Helping deal with a psychotic monster trying to kill you really gave a girl the mother of all headaches.

The sound of laboured breathing was all that could be heard for a while, then the gibbon changed back to a kneeling human-ish boy. Seble remembered Aqualad calling him BeastBoy. BeastBoy slumped down on his side, giving a weak whoop and pumping his fist in the air.

"Dude, we did it! We actually beat Despero, kinda!...Yes…." His hand slumped weakly down above his head as he finally gave in to exhaustion. Seble smiled still feeling giddy with the fading adrenaline. Aqualad approached her and she looked up tiredly at him, expecting to be rewarded for her part in saving them, but quickly became alarmed when he raised his sword at her just centimetres from her face, his demeanour suddenly very aggressive.

Her hand once again went to her mouth. "Get up and start walking." He gestured with his sword towards the exit. Confused, Seble tried to speak but he only pressed his sword closer so she got up, arms up in surrender. It was like the phrase 'out of the pan and into the fire.' Though she realised that technically if this place belonged to these people, then weren't they the ones who apparently kidnapped and locked her up in that room? The feeling of comradery left her fast. BeastBoy slowly hauled himself up looking confused.

"What're you doing Aqualad? Also, who is she anyway, wasn't she just helping us out?" He asked but despite defending her he quickly moved to help Aqualad restrain her. But despite Aqualad's obvious wariness handling her, BeastBoy leisurely side-stepped the tall, lean serious man and took hold of her hands, looking up at her with a reassuring smile as he handcuffed her with a couple of cable ties around her wrists. The gentleness of his movements made Seble smile back nervously. Whatever she was being accused of it was always better to not aggravate the people holding her captive.

With a satisfied huff he allowed her to lower her now restrained hands. Aqualad's eyes just narrowed further making BeastBoy back away from her, tail and ears lowered in submission. "Just asking dude, didn't know that was such a crime..."

"To enlighten you,_ she _is what attacked Robin, so I am sure you are very aware as to how dangerous she is. Nightwing has specifically asked us to keep her restrained," Aqualad's eyes snapped towards him as he explained. "We cannot let our guards down with her. Now _move_."

BeastBoy looked at her with wide eyes making her feel like a monster, much like the one who had been attacking her a while ago. She couldn't believe she had attacked someone! And when would that have happened? Last thing she could remember she…

As memories flooded her mind she felt horror well up inside her. She clearly remembered the events at Wayne Tech, finding out Francis was an alien, almost dying… but she also saw glimpses of something or someone else. Hunger, then joy, the smell of blood, pain, an old man's face and strangely feeling really sleepy. It was like watching a movie, or seeing events form someone else's body. Aqualad mistook her sudden panic for aggression and swung his arm up high, blade transforming into a whip as he brought it down fast towards her throat. She let out a strangled cry as the whip wound tight around her throat. He yanked his arm back making her fall flat on her face. BeastBoy shouted in alarm and seemed to be arguing with him, but Aqualad listened to no one as he continued his hold on her neck. Not even able to struggle the last thing she saw before she blacked out was a dark silhouette standing by the doorway and it was Batgirl who stepped through, arm held weakly at her side as she limped in clutching the wall for support. Then Seble's vision went completely black and she passed out.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

As I was writing I was thinking that maybe someone might think Aqualad sounds a bit too violent nearing the end? Is there a reason? Who knows! No, there is an actual reason don't worry guys all will be revealed.


	7. Agendas

**Chapter 6: Agendas**

**TAOS**

**September 24, 13:01 MDT**

"Try again Ed. Take your time, there's no rush."

Eduardo Dorado Jr.- or Ed to most people- was trying, really hard actually, and even though Black Canary was trying to encourage him, her soothing tone was only grating on his nerves. And of course his father standing pretty much right behind him was really not helping.

His eyes scrunched shut, he clenched his outstretched arm open and shut. Tiny beads of sweat fell from the bridge of his nose and his back was soaked through already but he still tried to get that small ball in front of him to float. After a few minutes he slowly opened his eyes. Maybe this time the damn ball would do as he said.

The ball sat unfazed on Black Canary desk not having moved even an inch.

Ed yelled in frustration as he dropped his arm back to his side startling his father from the relaxed dose he had been in. Black Canary gave a small grimace but quickly hid it by smiling comfortingly at the teenager.

"It's okay Ed remember we are only trying to see the extent of your abilities. Perhaps telekinesis is just not one of them." She said as she stood up eyes never leaving the young boy. "How about we end today's session here? We can try something else tomorrow."

Black Canary's tone sounded hopeful but Ed knew that there was little chance he could do anything more than teleport at this stage. And yes, that was _amazing_, most people can't do that, but he had hoped he could have done more, more than just be an extension of his father's work.

Tired as he was he asked anyway. "Couldn't we try again, just one more time? I, I think I can still go on a while longer." But even as he spoke a spike of pain lanced though his skull making him wince. Noticing Black Canary shook her head no.

"Like I said, there's no rush and too much stress at this point won't do you any good." Glancing towards his father she made a few notes on her notepad casually dismissing the conversations. Taking the hint Ed slumped in his seat, resigned, and nodded. So the little ball wins again.

Ed could feel one of _those _headaches starting so he was all for not continuing these pointless tests anyway. He picked up the tiny ball. It was funny how in these last few weeks this ball had become his worst enemy. His dad approached him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder making Ed tense up at the unusual and unexpected gesture. Since saving him form that android at S.T.A.R labs he'd been much more 'fatherly' than he had been his entire life, and in all honesty it took some getting used to. Ed replaced the ball on top of the desk and turned to leave still not meeting his father's eyes. Black Canary hurried towards the door to open it for the two.

Eduardo sr. stopped to shake her hand. "Thank you so much Ms, erm, Canary. You have helped my son so much this last few weeks." He gushed. Gosh, could he be any more obvious? Fawning over a pretty face.

Black Canary just laughed good naturedly. "It's my pleasure Mr Dorado Ed is a very hard-working boy. I'm simply glad that you've agreed for him to meet with me. Sometimes the psychological strain that powers gained through such… means has on children." Ed sighed and kept walking; they were definitely going to be a while. He wanted nothing more than to get in the car and drive back home and take some aspirin. Soon he thankfully heard two sets of footprints following behind him.

Back inside Black Canary's office the ball slowly started to float.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**METROPOLIS**

**September 24, 14:32 EDT**

Nightwing pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose as he watched the people enter and leave the building across the street from the coffee shop where he sat. Their target, I.D.E.A. Technologies, was one of many companies owned by Lex Luthor and right now their only lead. It had taken Batman and himself far too long to find this and he was going to make damn sure the mission was a success.

"Hey Dick! Ah- Sorry!"

Miss Martian narrowly dodged crashing into a lady with a pram as she came running up, arm waving. She, like himself, was dressed in civilian clothing. A wide brim sun-hat protected her head from the last summer rays and large, white-framed sunglasses concealed her eyes making her smile even bigger. She dressed practically in a green tank top with a white V-neck cardigan and washed out jeans. Looking down at himself he felt slightly overdressed in his navy blue blazer and black cashmere turtle-neck. It was only the two of them today, no Team, no watchtower, directly linked to the Batcave.

Dick stood from his seat and smiled as she started doing what he had been doing before she got there. "Are you ready Megan?" He asked.

She turned around so fast her hat whipped him across the face. Ouch. "Yes. Ready to go when you are," she looked down at her watch. "Luthor should be leaving the building in 5 minutes, give or take."

He sat back down but she remained standing, eyes narrowed and focused on one of the security guards standing just outside the buildings entrance. "Megan, aren't you going to sit down? We don't really want to draw any attention to ourselves."

Megan looked at him for a couple of seconds before smacking herself on the forehead and hurriedly sitting back down. "Hello Megan! Of course, sorry. Haven't done an undercover mission like this in a while, especially in broad daylight!" Her voice lilted up in excitement. Nightwing chuckled and sipped his now cold coffee that he'd been nursing for the past one and a half hour.

"For consistencies sake, let's go over the mission parameters one more time."

Megan leaned her elbows on the table top and leaned forward holding up one finger. "Of course. First objective, successfully infiltrate I.D.E.A. Tech as Dick Grayson visiting on behalf of Bruce Wayne in regards to a new business venture. My cover is you P.A," she held up a second one. "Second objective, create a distraction so that you may separate from your guide and find the main server to hack and find evidence of the link between Lexcorp and the situation at Wayne Enterprises." She clenched her hand into a fist and brought it back down to the table.

Nightwing nodded his head. Perfect. And that was why he chose her to accompany him on this mission. Returning his attention to the building he noticed the huge double doors had opened to let the world's most well-known chrome dome out: Lex Luthor. Nightwing discreetly indicated to Megan letting her know to get ready and he signalled for the bill.

As soon as Luthor's car was out of sight Megan and Dick left the coffee shop, stepping out into the sunlight and heading straight for I.D.E.A. Tech.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**INSIDE I.D.E.A. TECHNOLOGIES**

_Nightwing, hurry, I feel others approaching._

Nightwing growled lowly at Miss Martian's voice in his head. He was of course trying to go as fast as he could but as soon as he had logged on it was like someone had been lying in wait for him, and they launched an aggressive cyber-attack that was taking all of his skill just to circumvent. Gritting his teeth he risked glancing up once in Miss Martian's direction. She was standing outside, guarding the doorway in her camouflaged state, doing her job as he failed miserably at doing his. Whatever kind of information was being held here had to be important if the security here was greater than the security over at Wayne Enterprises, Lexcorp and S.T.A.R Labs, so it was important he got it! Especially as the last time the Team was sent to a Lexcorp owned factory, fearing they were selling a rebranded version of the Reach sports drink, the entire thing had been a bust, arriving at an empty factory.

A loud sound outside almost caused Nightwing to look up but he continued. Then, Miss Martian came flying into the room, crashing through the wall and sending splinters of wood lancing through the air. She grunted in pain as she hit the opposite wall but quickly stood up, crouched low, and launched herself back at her assailant.

_Miss Martian do you need my help?_

_No Nightwing I- urgh!- got it. You? Not that I- argh!- can help but-_

_I'm barely managing to hang on here but don't worry. This guy's good, but I'm no push-over._

Miss Martian opponent forced her back into the room. Moving so fast to Nightwing's peripheral vision it looked like she was teleporting from place to place. A sudden urgency gripped his mind to end this and kick this guy out from the network, but no matter how fast he typed, the other guy was better and always just a step ahead, spewing out lines of code like a… a machine? He cursed but pushed on, determined to get the upper hand.

And then Miss Martian crashed into the desk, screaming in agony.

Nightwing was thrown back and his connection to the computer was severed. But just before he fell and the machine died the words '_I am Cyborg'_ flashed in white against a black screen.

Compartmentalising all that for later, Nightwing crouched beside the screaming girl. She was clutching her head so hard her fingernails were digging into her skin, drawing blood. She tossed from side to side eyes glowing bright green beneath closed eyelids.

"Miss M? Come on, snap out of it!" Nightwing frantically shook her, images of Wally disappearing briefly replacing Miss Martians convulsing form, panic taking the reins for a moment before his training kicked back in and instead of trying to directly save his friend, he reverted his attention to the attacker, posture hostile and ready to fight.

However the girl was simply staring at them standing straight, posture perfect like a dancer. She was dressed like a Romani Gypsy woman, with a white gypsy shirt and green ankle length skirt. Her golden bangles glittered under the rays of light peeking through the shuttered blinds. As she walked towards them, golden-plated tassels tinkling with every step, her green eyes started to glow.

"Who are you and why are you here?" She asked.

Nightwing took a minute to think, noticing her child-like tone and blank look. Obvious signs of some form of mental manipulation.

He raised his hands in mock-surrender, still very aware of the screaming girl lying beside him, and took careful steps towards her. "Woah, woah there, calm down. What's your name kid?" He tried to make his tone as soothing as he could, took a leaf out of Black Canary's book, and kept his posture non-threatening.

The girl's expression became confused and she paused mid-step. "I- I don't," she began but suddenly her eyes hardened and screaming in anger she jumped him.

Nightwing gritted his teeth and braced himself. She hit him with a right hook which he deflected with his arm then throwing her arm off him he struck her palm up under the chin knocking her backwards. She fell to the ground but was quick to get back up but Nightwing didn't give her the time to recover. He caught her in a chokehold and she gasped as he shut off her air.

It would only have taken him a couple of seconds to incapacitate her but a sudden onslaught of confusing images assaulted his mind making his scream in pain and let go of the girl. She fell forward, coughing and spluttering. Miss Martian still continued to scream in pain.

The images stopped as soon as he let go of the girl but he still felt disoriented. The girl looked towards him breathing heavily. Her eyes had that confused look again. "What, what's goi-"

But Nightwing didn't let her finish. With practiced movements he slid a neural-synaptic disrupter disc from his utility belt and threw it at the girl's head, landing square in the middle of her forehead. She let out the slightest gasp before crumpling in a heap at his feet. The disc gave off a crackling blue light and her eyes had rolled back into her head. He shakily got back to his feet and removed the disk, slipping it back into his belt. Miss Martian's screams had stopped so that was good. He looked back at the gypsy girl who he could now safely identify as a telepath. It was good he had these discs made soon after what Miss Martian did to Aqualad…

Quickly returning to his fallen friend he helped her as she, groaning, struggled to get up.

"Urgh my head…" She rubbed her temples and winced as she touched the cuts. Nightwing pulled her to a sitting position. Noticing the fallen girl she scrambled up to her feet.

"She's fine, but I think we should take her with us." He said but Miss Martians look was anything but friendly.

"She tried to kill me doesn't that mean anything at all!?That," she pointed at the girl. "Is definitely a bad guy."

Nightwing picked up the girl fireman style and, still wondering why no alarms had gone off or security guards come barrelling in, he ignored Miss Martian's enraged ranting to find a way out that wasn't the front door. Just then a secret door was mechanically triggered behind a bookcase old school style. Raising a suspicious eyebrow, he signalled to her and she quickly walked passed him and peered through the opening.

She closed her eyes. "I don't hear anyone down there, but it could be a trap." She mused. The tapping sound of running footsteps reached them from the hallway and Nightwing made a split-decision, stupid or otherwise.

"We'll risk it for now, deal with it as we go along. Lead on Miss M." He rushed forward just as she did and the door slid shut behind them muting all sounds and light. Small, overhead light-bulbs twinkled into existence, lighting up a narrow staircase leading below ground. Tentatively, Miss Martian led the way, walking through what appeared to be a maze of sorts; the lights showed the path whilst leaving others in the dark. For the moment Nightwing followed, his curiosity over the day's event overpowering his caution.

It was not long before they were let out into a shaded alleyway about a mile or so away from the main building. Nightwing looked back at the quite building puzzled. It should have shown signs of the fight that had gone on earlier behind its walls – he remembered having blown a hole through at least one of them- but it was unnaturally still, unnaturally unmarked.

"Nightwing, the nearest zeta-platform is only a couple of blocks away. I've called Superboy and he'll meet us there in case we were followed." Miss Martian said as she turned off her communicator. "It's strange isn't it, who in there helped us?"

Nightwing snapped out of his thoughts and shrugged. "For now, doesn't matter. I'm just glad we got out of there, it was obviously a trap, designed to test us." He looked down at the sleeping girl in his arms. "Or perhaps her." He straightened and squared his shoulders. Explaining that they had not only failed their mission but that the entire mission itself had been a trap for them wouldn't be pleasant. "Let's go, this girl needs medical attention."

"Oh, hello Megan! I almost forgot," Miss Martian exclaimed. "The girl in the medical bay, Seble Howard? She woke up. Superboy told me over the comm-link. He also sounded worried about something else but he wouldn't say…"

At the mere mention of that… monster's name Nightwing tensed. All he could think of was of Alfred lying sick and dying at Wayne Mansion for 4 days before Batman and Zatanna found the right anti-venom to cure him. Good, now that she was awake, he'd get his answers.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**UKNOWN**

**September 24, 16:59 EDT**

He sipped his tea, the mild citrusy taste of the Earl Grey engulfing his senses before he returned his cup to its saucer. It was a good brew, a fine selection, but the experience was ever so slightly marred by his present company.

Klarion cackled loudly as he watched Nightwing and the Martian leave the building. A shame, he had hoped the girl would have proven to be a stronger opponent than she had shown to be- especially with the amount of money he had spent on her and the others. It simply added to his already low opinion of these… magic users.

"Looks like the little birds flew the coop! And they took your dove too!" He clapped his hands together causing the tabby cat in his lap to jump out of his lap yowling. He tapped the video screen and continued his jeers, causing his companion to grimace in displeasure.

"A minor set-back Klarion, but a necessary one. The test had to be made, and the League and their young protégés suspect little to nothing." He explained. "But the girl, what was her codename? Ah yes, Gypsy, she showed promise. If the rest perform half as well as she did today it will not be long before we have what we need."

"Psht, you're no fun Mr Optimist. Blackbriar what do _you _think? How's your new pet doing?"

The addressed, Blackbriar Thorn, turned minutely towards the witch boy, his hand lying gently atop a raven-haired girl's head. The girl stared with wide vacant eyes outside a tall window as if dazzled by the sun rays peeking through the drawn curtains. She was kneeling on the floor whilst Blackbriar sat on a padded armchair cross-legged. "June is no pet Klarion, mind your tongue." He rasped. He turned back around facing the closed window, staring at nothing.

Klarion pouted. "Rats, you're all so boring! I'm leaving." Mr Tekkl jumped into his arms and he stroked the little creature lovingly. The mysterious man chuckled and continued to sip his tea.

"Not to worry Klarion, very soon you'll have more fun than you could ever possibly handle, and this world will finally see the light."

Blackbriar's finger dug deep into the girl's head making her squeak in pain as a bark of laughter escaped him and Klarion squealed in delight and spun on his heels. Magic users, so easily placated. He sighed contentedly and went back to drinking his tea.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**A/N: **Yep, I don't think I'm very good with deadlines… So screw them, I'll do it when I'll do it! But seriously, things just keep coming up and I find no time to write, even this one is so short in comparison to my usual stuff…


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